Carlos Alcaraz reached his first Paris Masters final on Saturday, beating Casper Ruud 6-4, 6-4 in a controlled semi-final performance at the Accor Arena that lasted one hour and 27 minutes.
The second seed did not face a single break point all match, won 86 per cent of his first-serve points and sealed the win with an ace on his second match point, according to Reuters and Tennis Majors. He will face Ben Shelton in Sunday’s final.
It is Alcaraz’s third final since the US Open and his 11th career Masters 1000 final, and it extends a seven-match winning streak that began with his Vienna title last Sunday.
A match without drama
After the drama of his quarter-final — when he saved two match points against Taylor Fritz — Alcaraz’s semi-final was a study in control. He broke Ruud once in each set, struck 27 winners and seven aces, and outpointed the Norwegian 69-51.
Ruud, who had reached the semi-finals without dropping a set, managed 14 winners but made 23 unforced errors, and he never found a way into Alcaraz’s service games. The Spaniard’s first serve was simply too good: 31 of 36 first-serve points won.
Alcaraz broke at 3-3 in the opening set after an 11-shot rally, and again to lead 5-4 in the second before closing out the match. It was, by his own high standards, a routine afternoon.
The final awaits
Sunday’s final is a rematch of one of the matches of the season — the US Open quarter-final that Shelton won in five sets in a marathon that ended at 3:33am. Alcaraz leads their head-to-head 3-1, but he lost the last meeting.
The Spaniard takes a 41-5 win-loss record into the final, with four titles already this season — the Australian Open, Doha, Tokyo and Vienna. A Paris title would be his fifth of the year and his first at a tournament that has long eluded him.
What comes next
The final is on Sunday afternoon in Paris, and the winner will carry serious momentum into the ATP Finals in Turin, which begin on November 15. For Alcaraz, it is a chance to complete a set of Masters 1000 finals at seven of the nine events on the calendar.
Related coverage: Alcaraz Saves Two Match Points to Stun Fritz in Paris Epic
