Carlos Alcaraz had another dismal tournament at the Paris Masters, which will impact his ranking next week.
Alcaraz’s chances of passing Jannik Sinner for first place before the end of the season faded several weeks ago. Since Novak Djokovic in 2015, the Italian has been the fastest player to reach the year-end No. 1 ranking.
Alcaraz’s greatest chance is to finish second in 2024. He may have put himself in a wonderful position to do so if he had done well at the Paris Masters. Winning the title in the French capital would have almost guaranteed the second place at the end of the year.
The four-time Grand Slam champion jeopardized his position last week by declining to compete at the Vienna Open or the Swiss Indoors in Basel. However, Alexander Zverev, ranked third, was unable to capitalize, falling in the quarterfinals of the Vienna Open to Lorenzo Musetti.
The Paris Masters has been one of Alcaraz’s poorest events to date. He has never advanced beyond the quarterfinals, but he informed his opponents ahead of this year’s tournament that he felt different this time.
Despite defeating Nicolas Jarry in his first set, Alcaraz described the court as slippery and sounded less aggressive and confident than he did before the year’s last Masters 1000 competition.
Ugo Humbert then delivered an outstanding performance against him in the round of 32. Alcaraz performed significantly better than Jarry, but he lost 1-6, 6-3, and 5-7.
The Spaniard complained about the court again later, saying he didn’t understand why the organizers made it so much faster than prior years and that it was impossible to prepare adequately beforehand.
Alcaraz’s focus now goes to the ATP Finals, which begin on November 10th. Alcaraz’s coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, has created a court similar to the one that will be used at the tournament at his academy to keep the French Open champion from being unprepared again.
Following Alcaraz’s setback, Zverev was given the opportunity to overtake him. He won his first two bouts, against Tallon Griekspoor and Arthur Fils. His match versus Fils saw the Frenchman become enraged following a poor call by the umpire.
The German defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas to go to the semifinals against Holger Rune, the 2022 champion in Paris. Zverev wasn’t only playing for a spot in the final; defeating Rune would secure his spot at No. 2 in next week’s rankings.
He took advantage of the opportunity and won his best match of the tournament against the Dane, 6-3, 7-6. This puts him at 7365 points in the live rankings, 155 points ahead of Alcaraz’s 7210.
Zverev may go 350 points ahead of Alcaraz if he overcomes Ugo Humbert in the final. To do so, the two-time Grand Slam runner-up must overcome a raucous home crowd.
Regardless matter who wins the 2024 Paris Masters final, the world number two ranking will be decided at the ATP Finals.