Carlos Alcaraz has ticked off another box. On Sunday in Bercy, the 23-year-old beat Ben Shelton 7-6(5), 7-5 to win the Rolex Paris Masters for the first time – a ninth Masters 1000 title, and the one that had been missing from a résumé that already looked pretty complete.
The match
It was tighter than the scoreline suggests. Alcaraz saved six of the seven break points he faced, including four in a single game early in the first set, and held his nerve in a 65-minute opener that turned on a tie-break he took by winning four of the last five points from 4-3 down.
Shelton, who served 12 aces to Alcaraz’s six, broke for 3-2 in the second and looked set to force a decider. Instead, Alcaraz broke back immediately, held for 5-4 with a point that had him pointing at his ear for more noise, and then broke the American at 5-6 to close it out on his second match point – a lunging forehand pass followed by a backhand into an empty court. Alcaraz finished with 33 winners to Shelton’s 25 in just under two hours.
Revenge, of a sort
The narrative writes itself: Shelton ended Alcaraz’s US Open in September, a five-set quarter-final thriller in New York that came in Alcaraz’s first tournament back after four months out with a wrist injury. Alcaraz has since won Tokyo, Vienna and now Paris, three titles and one loss in 17 matches. He leads the head-to-head 4-1.
“It is something I have been chasing for a long time,” Alcaraz said on court. “Some of the toughest defeats I ever had in my career I have had here. Finally I got my level here.”
On Cloud Nine ? @carlosalcaraz defeats Ben Shelton to claim his ninth ATP Masters 1000 title and his first-ever #RolexParisMasters crown! ? https://t.co/AsmfdM4bnV
— ATP Tour (@atptour) November 8, 2026
The numbers
- Ninth Masters 1000 title; titles at seven of the nine events (Canada and Shanghai still missing)
- Fifth consecutive season with a Masters 1000 crown – only Djokovic and Nadal have done that
- Fifth title of 2026 and 29th of his career
- Only Jannik Sinner (six) has won more trophies this year
For a player whose season was written off in July, this is a proper statement. Alcaraz arrives at the ATP Finals healthy, winning, and winning the kind of grinding, break-point-heavy matches that Bercy specialises in. The forehand is still the forehand, the drop shots are still absurd, but the decision-making in the tight moments looks sharper than it has all year.
