Carlos Alcaraz conjured up what initially appeared — to the chair umpire, to everyone watching in the stands or on TV and to his opponent, Ben Shelton of USA— a remarkable lunging volley to win a point at the French Open. But Alcaraz knew it shouldn’t count.

So after briefly thinking about it, the defending champion at Roland-Garros fessed up and called himself for breaking the rules, handing the point to Shelton during what would become a 7-6 (8), 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 victory for Alcaraz in the fourth round. The match lasted for 3 hours, 19 minutes. He meets No. 12 Tommy Paul of the US in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.

In the women’s category, Elina Svitolina saved three match points and came back to eliminate 2024 runner-up Jasmine Paolini 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-1, earning her fifth French Open quarterfinal appearance. The 13th-seeded Svitolina, who is from Ukraine, is a three-time Grand Slam semifinalist — getting that far twice at Wimbledon and once at the U.S. Open — but is 0-4 so far in the quarterfinals at Roland-Garros.

The other quarterfinal on the top half of the women’s bracket will be No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka against No. 8 Zheng Qinwen. Sabalenka, a three-time major champ, used a five-game run to take control from 5-all in the first set and beat No. 16 Amanda Anisimova of the U.S. 7-5, 6-3, while 2024 Olympic gold medalist Zheng was a 7-6 (5), 1-6, 6-3 winner over No. 19 Liudmila Samsonova.

Meanwhile, Tommy Paul and Frances Tiafoe also reached their first French Open quarterfinals and gave the United States two men in that round in Paris for the first time since 1996.