Djokovic, Alcaraz return for Paris Masters as race for ATP Finals places hots up

Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz, the world’s top two and the pair who have dominated men’s tennis in 2023, return to action next week at the Paris Masters, aka the last chance saloon for those chasing a place at the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin.

Djokovic and Alcaraz don’t have to worry about Turin, of course, having long since booked their places in the eight-man event in Turin. Winning Grand Slams – three for Djokovic and one for Alcaraz will do that.

But while Daniil Medvedev, Jannik Sinner and Andrey Rublev can rest easy, having also booked their places for Turin, three places remain and Paris – as it always does – will be the last chance for the rest of those in contention to join them.

At the time of writing, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexander Zverev and Holger Rune – the defending champion – occupy the remaining spots, but, with 1,000 points on offer to the winner at Bercy, Taylor Fritz, Hubert Hurkacz, Casper Ruud and Tommy Paul also have legitimate hopes to qualify.

Djokovic, Alcaraz chasing year-end No 1 ranking

Just 500 points separate Djokovic from Alcaraz at the top of the Race rankings and the two men look set to take the contest for the year-end No 1 ranking right down to the wire in Turin.

Rune, Fritz, Hurkacz and Ruud are in the top half with Djokovic, who skipped the Asian swing, while Tsitsipas, Zverev and Ruud are all in the bottom half, along with Alcaraz, who played Beijing and Shanghai but then pulled out of Basel through injury.

The draw was made on Friday evening. Djokovic will play either fellow Serb Miomir Kecmanovic or Tomas Martin Etcheverry in his first match, while Alcaraz will begin against either Cam Norrie or Alexandre Muller of France. Rune, in eighth place for Turin, will open against Stan Wawrinka or Matteo Arnaldi while Hurkacz, who sits 10th in the Race, faces a tough first-round battle against Seb Korda. Fritz plays Sebastien Baez of Argentina. Ruud takes on either Frenchman Gael Monfils or another Argentinian, Francisco Cerundolo. Paul meets another veteran Frenchman, Richard Gasquet.

In the bottom half, Tsitsipas plays either Felix Auger-Aliassime or Jan-Lennard Struff and Zverev plays a special exempt entry.

De Minaur v Murray, again

And there’s also a fourth meeting in 2023 for Alex de Minaur, not totally out of contention for Turin himself, and Andy Murray. The bad news for former world No 1 Murray is that De Minaur has won the previous three

Frances Tiafoe plays Alexander Bublik and Grigor Dimitrov takes on Lorenzo Musetti in two other mouthwatering first-round encounters.

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