Alcaraz Aims to Secure World Number One in Paris

Carlos Alcaraz has arrived in Paris. He trained on Friday alongside Karen Khachanov, the 2018 tournament champion, and is ready to conquer one of the Masters 1000 titles missing from his record and thus secure the world number one spot by the end of the season.

The Murcian, sporting platinum hair again after returning home with over a million euros from the Six Kings Slam in Saudi Arabia, learned his fate in this Parisian tournament, which has moved from Bercy to the La Defense arena.

He will skip the first round as the tournament's top seed and will then face Cameron Norrie, whom he leads 5-2 in head-to-head encounters, or Sebastián Báez, whom he has defeated in all three previous meetings, including the one that caused him a grade two sprain in Tokyo.

The tournament in Japan was Alcaraz's last official event, after which he withdrew from Shanghai and regained his competitive rhythm at the Riyadh exhibition, where he lost to Jannik Sinner in the final.

In a hypothetical third round, Alcaraz could face Shanghai champion Valentin Vacherot or the tournament's finalist Arthur Rinderknech, while in the quarter-finals, the favourites to cross his path are Casper Ruud, last week's champion in Stockholm, or Felix Auger-Aliassime, who withdrew from the Basel quarter-final clash against Jaume Munar on Friday.

In the semi-finals, Taylor Fritz, whom Alcaraz has defeated in Tokyo and Riyadh, or Alex de Miñaur, appear as potential opponents, while for the final, he has avoided, as expected being the second seed, Sinner and also Alexander Zverev.

Alcaraz has never been at his best in the last Masters 1000 of the year, mainly due to the accumulated fatigue of the entire season. Alongside Canada and Shanghai, it is one of the Masters 1000 missing from his trophy cabinet, with his best result here being the quarter-finals reached in 2022. In 2021, he lost in the third round, in 2023 in the second, and in 2024 in the third.

Awaiting the final result of Sinner in Vienna, where he is already in the semi-finals, Alcaraz depends on himself to maintain the number one spot at the end of the season, as he did in 2022 when he became the youngest in history to achieve it.

If he reaches the final or wins the title, he will be assured of finishing the year as the best, equalling Bjorn Borg, Stefan Edberg, and Lleyton Hewitt, who also achieved it twice in their careers.

If he loses in his debut, he would need to secure three victories in the ATP Finals in Turin, where he is already qualified alongside Sinner, Novak Djokovic, and Zverev, while he would require two wins if he falls in the third round and one if eliminated in the quarters.

These scenarios also consider that Sinner wins everything remaining this season, so an early defeat for the Italian would make things much easier.