Carlos Alcaraz beat Ben Shelton 7-6 (7-5) 7-5 on Sunday to win his first Paris Masters title, avenging a late-night loss to Shelton at the US Open just 60 days earlier.
The victory offered the latest sign that Alcaraz is nearing a full return to the top of the men’s game. He reached the US Open quarter-finals in September after four months out with a wrist injury, before losing an astonishing five-set epic to the rising American star. Since then, Alcaraz has won three titles and lost only once in 17 matches.
Shelton, the world number four, had won four titles this year and reached his first major final. Alcaraz, 23, had never gone beyond the quarter-finals in Paris before this week.
“It’s something I’ve been chasing for a long time. I had some of the toughest losses of my career here,” Alcaraz said. “Today was one of the toughest challenges we have in tennis right now, facing Ben. Great champion, great player, great person. He is doing better and better every tournament. From here, it is going to be even tougher facing him.”
Alcaraz closes in on Golden Masters
Alcaraz will now look to finish a demanding year on a high at the ATP Finals in Turin. He began 2026 by winning the Australian Open, becoming the youngest man in history to complete the career Grand Slam. The seven-time major winner heads to Turin on a nine-match winning streak, having won in Vienna before his Paris triumph.
Only two days earlier, Alcaraz faced defeat against Taylor Fritz in the quarter-finals, but he saved two match points to win. It was the fourth time in his career that he has won a title after being match points down at a tournament.
He showed the same resilience against Shelton. Alcaraz saved all six break points he faced in a tense opening set. He took the first-set tie-break by winning four of the final five points from 4-3 down. Shelton, who also saved two break points, broke serve in the second set when Alcaraz made errors in a third service game. Alcaraz responded as he served for a 5-3 lead, holding for 5-4 after a long exchange. He then closed out the match on his second match point, winning five of the final six games.
The win was Alcaraz’s ninth ATP Masters 1000 title overall. Canada and Shanghai are the only Masters 1000 events he has yet to win, and he needs both to match Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner as only the third man to win all nine tournaments at that level.
Patten and Heliovaara seal year-end world number one spot
Great Britain’s Henry Patten and his doubles partner Harri Heliovaara have secured the year-end world number one ranking in men’s doubles for the first time. Their semi-final run in Paris also sealed their place at the ATP Finals.
The Wimbledon champions, who began partnering in 2024, reclaimed their Wimbledon title this summer. They also won in Adelaide, Doha, Dubai and Madrid this year.
“It’s an incredible achievement, one that goes to the very top of my list of best achievements as a tennis player,” Patten said. “When I look back on the journey me and Harri have been on together when we started in 2024, I was ranked around number 60 in the world and Harri was around 40. In two years we’ve worked incredibly hard and to go from where we started to where we are now, on top of the world, is beautiful.”
Heliovaara added: “One of the crazy dreams comes true again. A few years ago I would have never imagined this could be possible.”