ATP Tour

Alcaraz on Paris title run: ‘Probably my best week’ since injury

Even by the high standards set by Carlos Alcaraz since his return to action in September, the Spaniard’s performances this past week at the Rolex Paris Masters were something special.

The No. 3 player in the PIF ATP Rankings downed Ben Shelton in straight sets on Sunday afternoon in the French capital to win his fifth tour-level trophy of 2026. Alcaraz, who missed four months earlier this year due to a wrist injury before returning to action at the US Open, was later asked to rank his Paris run in the context of the second part of his season.

“Probably my best week in terms of tennis,” Alcaraz, who has also lifted ATP 500 trophies in Tokyo and Vienna since his comeback from injury. “I can match it with Vienna that I feel really comfortable in terms of tennis. But I would say this one, this week, I made one step forward mentally. I had a lot of really tough moments. I'm not saying match point down, but during the matches, I faced important and really tough moments internally.

“[I was] fighting with myself, trying to be positive, trying to stay strong mentally, and not letting those negative thoughts put into the game. I'm just really happy that I just controlled my emotions, controlled my thoughts every moment, every single match. So for me, I made one step forward with that, but probably these two past weeks have been the best that I played since my comeback.”

Having saved two match points to escape Taylor Fritz in a dramatic quarter-final during which he also produced one of the shots of the 2026 season, Alcaraz downed another American in Shelton to clinch his first Rolex Paris Masters crown. The 23-year-old Spaniard now leads the big-serving Shelton 4-1 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series as they each now head to Turin for the Nitto ATP Finals.

“I tried to be focused on his serve and after that, I knew that I was going to run a lot,” Alcaraz said after winning an impressive 37 per cent (19/52) of points against Shelton’s first serve, according to Infosys ATP Stats. “The first, I would say, two shots after his serve, were going to be really defensive for me, Because I felt like he is always in a position to attack after that serve, and it's really difficult to dominate that ball.

“It's not coming only fast. It's coming with a lot of power, let's say. So it makes it even more difficult to control the ball. I knew that at the beginning I was trying to be focused, and the reaction was good for me, so I'm going to take that.”

Having racked up nine consecutive wins across Vienna and Paris these past two weeks, Alcaraz will enter Turin arguably playing the best indoor tennis of his career. Yet he will know that any drop in level will make things difficult for him in his pursuit of his first title at the prestigious season finale.

“The matches were real close for me in this tournament,” Alcaraz reflected when asked if he felt like ‘the favourite’ entering Turin. “All I can say is I'm feeling really comfortable. I'm improving on this surface and on the courts. I'm going to go to Turin, going to try to do the same things that I have been doing, always going forward, trying to still improve, still evolve my game.

"Let's see. If I'm the favourite or not, or I feel the favourite or not, to be honest, it is not in my hands. I don't really want to take that in my hands and [don’t want to] think about it. [I’m] just going there to try to enjoy and try to play good tennis.”