Carlos Alcaraz is set to make his return to tour-level action at the Paris Masters.
Nearly a month after Alcaraz won the Japan Open, the Spaniard is ready to take to the courts in the French capital.
Since his successful campaign in Tokyo, the world number one has not played at an ATP event during the indoor hard court season, but he did feature at the Six Kings Slam exhibition in Saudi Arabia.
There, Alcaraz lost to Jannik Sinner in the final, with the Italian claiming his first win over his rival since the Wimbledon final.
Having enjoyed another fantastic season so far, the world number one will now set his sights on the Paris Masters, where he has struggled in the past.
Alcaraz arrived early at the event and has already managed to get a feel for the courts by playing a practice set with Shanghai Masters finalist Arthur Rinderknech.
Carlos Alcaraz’s practice set with Arthur Rinderknech in Paris
Rinderknech achieved the best result of his career in Shanghai, defeating Alexander Zverev, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Daniil Medvedev en route to his first Masters 1000 final.
The Frenchman ultimately lost in the title bout to his cousin, Valentin Vacherot, falling in the decisive third set.
Now, Rinderknech will hope to emulate his Shanghai performance in Paris, where he has already impressed during his practice set with Alcaraz.
Both stars took to the new Paris La Defense Arena to fine-tune their games ahead of the tournament and played out some competitive points.
The two swapped strong service games throughout the set, with neither player facing a break point.
This resulted in a decisive tiebreak, in which Rinderknech took a commanding 5-0 lead after winning two points on Alcaraz’s serve.
Alcaraz clawed his way back into the shootout, winning five straight points to level it up, but missed a straightforward overhead for Rinderknech to get his nose back in front.
Rinderknech then forced an error from Alcaraz with a big serve to win the tiebreak 7-5, and emerge victorious in the practice set.
Carlos Alcaraz’s first opponent at the Paris Masters
Alcaraz will receive a bye in the first round of the Paris Masters and will face either Cam Norrie or Sebastian Baez in round two.
The six-time major champion is undefeated against Baez, having beaten the Argentinian in each of their three tour-level meetings, the most recent of which came at the Japan Open.
- 2021 Next Gen ATP Finals semifinals – Alcaraz beats Baez
- 2022 US Open round of 128- Alcaraz beats Baez
- 2025 Japan Open round of 32- Alcaraz beats Baez
Against Norrie, however, Alcaraz has suffered two defeats, with losses to the Briton at the 2022 Cincinnati Open and the 2023 Rio Open.
Should they clash in the second round of the Paris Masters, it will be their first meeting on an indoor hard court.
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