Alcaraz buries ghosts and approaches Sinner before the assault on his last great challenge

Carlos Alcaraz This Sunday he added a new title to his extensive record. The Murcian He was proclaimed champion of the Paris Masters 1000 after beating Ben Shelton in the grand final by 7-6(5), 7-5 in a duel in which he showed that he has reached the final stretch of the season in top form.

His success in the French capital It also allows him to get closer to the current king of the Masters 1000, Jannik Sinner. The Italian has a total of ten, after becoming champion this year in the first five of the year (Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo, Madrid and Rome), only one more than the Murcian tennis player, who already has nine crowns.

Recent victories in Tokyo and Vienna They show that the wrist injury that kept him off the slopes for more than four months has been definitively forgotten.

In fact, his numbers since he returned at the end of August are even better than before. There are 20 wins and two losses in the 22 individual matches he has played since the first round of the US Opena percentage of 90.9% of victories that exceeds the 81.6% (302 games won and 68 lost) before the injury.

Champion in Indian Wells in 2023 and 2024, in Miami in 2022, in Madrid in 2022 and 2023, in Monte Carlo, Rome and Cincinnati in 2025, to Alcaraz He only needs to add the tournaments in Canada and Shanghai to his record to have the complete collectionsomething that Sinner recently achieved to join Novak Djokovic as the only ones in history to achieve it.

Starting on Sunday, Alcaraz will also seek to get closer to Sinner in the ATP Finals record.one of the few big goals he has not yet achieved. The current world number 3 will seek in Turin to remove the bad taste from last year, when he lost in the final against Sinner, who won his second consecutive master’s title.

What Alcaraz does dominate Sinner in is the number of Grand Slams won. With his victory this year at the Australian Open There are now seven majors for the Spanish player, compared to five for the Italianwho has not competed since winning Wimbledon in mid-July.