Carlos Alcaraz's woes at the Paris Masters continued on Thursday, and Alexander Zverev could take advantage by claiming the No. 2 ranking from the Spaniard.
Alcaraz's achievements at just 21 are incredible, but indoor hardcourts are the one set of conditions he has yet to master, failing to reach an indoor ATP Tour final during his young career.
The four-time Grand Slam champion has not advanced past the quarterfinal in his appearances at the Paris Masters. However, before the tournament began, Alcaraz felt confident about this year being different.
He felt tiredness had a negative impact on him in previous years. The former world No. 1 stated he felt better ahead of the 2024 iteration of the final Masters 1000 tournament of the year and did not think bettering his past results would be difficult.
Alcaraz defeated Nicolas Jarry on Tuesday to begin strongly. Although he won relatively comfortably, the young star did not like the court, referring to it as slippery after the match.
That set up a meeting against the French No. 1 Ugo Humbert. The home favorite, who recently accused Jannik Sinner of not thinking clearly in his comments about the tennis schedule, possesses a big serve that is very dangerous in the fast conditions at the Paris Masters.
Alcaraz had defeated Humbert in their previous two meetings in 2024 at Wimbledon and on an indoor hardcourt at the Davis Cup in September. But their match in the French capital was very different.
Humbert produced some incredible shots, especially in the third set, to beat Alcaraz 6-1, 3-6, 7-5. The Spaniard was off-the-pace in the opening set but lost the decider despite playing well in most of it.
Alcaraz is currently at No. 2 in the rankings after Zverev failed to overtake him at the Vienna Open. The German fell in the quarterfinals in Austria to the Olympic bronze medalist Lorenzo Musetti.
Zverev is into another quarterfinal in Paris and will play Stefanos Tsitsipas for a place in the semifinal. The two-time Grand Slam runner-up is two victories away from overtaking Alcaraz at No. 2.
Alcaraz is on 7210 points after losing in the round of 16. Zverev's total in the live rankings is 6915, leaving him 295 points behind the 2022 US Open champion.
Beating Tsitsipas would add 200 points and leave Zverev on 7115 points, but he will end Alcaraz's reign at No. 2 with another victory to take him to the final. That would leave Zverev on 7365 points.
Neither Alcaraz nor Zverev can overtake Jannik Sinner at No. 1. The Italian has already sealed the year-end No. 1 spot and was the fastest to achieve that feat since Novak Djokovic in 2015.
Alcaraz's struggles in indoor conditions might make Zverev confident of finishing the job at the ATP Finals and becoming the year-end No. 2. Roger Federer's coach, Ivan Ljubicic, thinks Alcaraz's indoor struggles mean Zverev is the biggest threat to Sinner at the ATP Finals.
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