PARIS – Top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz looked out of sorts in his 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 loss to unseeded Cameron Norrie in the second round of the Paris Masters on Tuesday.
The six-time Grand Slam winner even had an animated conversation with coach Juan Carlos Ferrero after losing the second set.
Norrie took full advantage and sealed the victory on his second match point with a strong first serve that Alcaraz returned long. It was his first career victory against a No. 1 player.
Alcaraz committed 54 unforced errors and won just 64 percent of his points on the first try, while slumping to a third defeat in eight games against Norrie. It was their first meeting indoors.
The defeat also ended Alcaraz’s 17-match winning run in Masters events and means second-ranked Jannik Sinner will rise to the top of the ATP rankings if he wins the tournament. Sinner plays against Zizou Bergs on Wednesday.
Norrie next faces the winner of Wednesday’s match between cousins Valentin Vacherot and Arthur Rinderknech.
Vacherot defeated 14th seed Jiri Lehecka 6-1, 6-3 in the first round earlier on Tuesday. The 40th-ranked Vacherot faces Rinderknech just over two weeks after beating him in the final of the Shanghai Masters. Vacherot made a contrasting run during qualifying in China to win his first career tournament and move up the rankings.
The preparations will be slightly different this time.
“We stay in our own bubbles. We are cousins, yes, but we are not on the same team, so we are not going to eat together tonight,” said Vacherot, who is from Monaco.
“In Shanghai we had breakfast together, we warmed up together, because we were far from everyone and everywhere,” Vacherot added. “He came to see my games, I came to watch his games, and we had no one else to rely on. (This time) all our families are here, so we’re going to stick with our side, and I hope we’ll deliver a great game.”
Fifth-seeded American Ben Shelton reached the third round with a 7-6 (4), 6-3 win over Flavio Cobolli. He next faces Andrei Rublev. In the late match, fourth seed Taylor Fritz played Aleksandar Vukic.
The remaining first round play saw wins for ninth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime and No. 11 Daniil Medvedev.
The indoor tournament moved from its old home at the Bercy Arena – which hosted the men’s and women’s basketball finals at last year’s Paris Olympics – to La Défense Arena. The multi-sport venue is home to a rugby team and fans witnessed swimmer Léon Marchand’s gold medal rush at the Paris Games, as well as a Taylor Swift concert in May last year.
“It’s much more comfortable. A bigger center court and also court 1 and court 2 (are) great courts,” said the four-time Grand Slam champion from Italy. “We have some great facilities where we can practice with a great gym and everything is set up perfectly.”
Third-ranked Alexander Zverev thinks it’s a bit noisy.
“When you are practicing on one of the outdoor courts, you have noise from court 1, you have noise from the speakers of (the main) court,” the German said with a big dose. “There’s a lot going on.”
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