Alcaraz Beats Shelton to Win Paris Masters

Carlos Alcaraz sprang to his right, flicked a forehand pass, then tracked down a short ball and buried a backhand into the empty court. That was match point, and that was the Rolex Paris Masters. Alcaraz beat Ben Shelton 7-6(5), 7-5 on Court Central on Sunday to win his first Paris title and the ninth ATP Masters 1000 crown of his career, the ATP Tour reported.

This one carried some weight. Shelton beat Alcaraz in a five-set US Open quarterfinal in September, in Alcaraz’s first event back from a four-month wrist layoff. Since then the Spaniard has won Tokyo and Vienna, and now Paris. He leads the head-to-head 4-1.

The Escape That Set the Tone

Shelton came out swinging and had Alcaraz in real trouble early. At 1-2 in the first set, Alcaraz fell behind 0/40 and had to wipe away four break points in the game, one of them with a scorching forehand winner. Shelton got out of his own jam at 3-3, saving two break points with a pair of world-class volleys.

Neither man blinked until the tie-break. Alcaraz was the steadier player there and closed the 65-minute set on his second set point when Shelton sent a forehand long.

Down a Break, Then Gone

Shelton broke midway through the second set and, for a few games, looked like he might drag this to a decider. Alcaraz answered in the eighth game, ripping several forehand winners to break back for 4-4. From there he played loose, smiling between points, and ran away with it. The whole thing took one hour and 57 minutes.

“It is something I have been chasing for a long time,” Alcaraz said on court. “Some of the toughest defeats I ever had in my career I have had here.”

What the Title Means

The numbers stack up fast. Alcaraz, 23 and ranked No. 3, picked up his 42nd win of the season and has won 19 of his 21 matches since returning from the wrist injury. He has now won seven of the nine Masters 1000 events, and he is just the third player since 1990 to win a Masters 1000 title in five straight years, joining Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. He is also only the second Spanish champion in the tournament’s 40-year history, after David Ferrer in 2012.

Shelton, the No. 4 player in the rankings, was chasing a third Masters 1000 title after winning Canada in 2025 and 2026. He falls to 1-19 against Top-3 opponents, and he gets another shot soon. Both players head to the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin, which run Nov. 15-22, along with Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev, Flavio Cobolli, Arthur Fils, Frances Tiafoe and Rafael Jodar.

Smacktok pick lean: Lean on Carlos Alcaraz to win his opening round-robin match in Turin. He has won 19 of 21 since coming back from the wrist injury, just added titles in Tokyo, Vienna and Paris, and beat Shelton in straight sets in what he called one of the toughest challenges in tennis.