Carlos Alcaraz and Jack Draper win confidently in Paris, but several seeded players crash out at the last ATP Masters 1000 event of the year

Carlos Alcaraz took a little longer than expected to knock out Nicolas Jarry in Paris. He defeated the Chilean 7:5 and 6:1 in 90 minutes and made it to the third round of the last Masters 1000 tournament of the year.

After receiving a bye in the first round, it wasn’t the ideal draw for Alcaraz, who lost in straight sets to Jarry on clay courts in South America earlier this season.

The Spaniard lost in the second round here last year and looked to be in trouble early on against Jarry. A 4-1 lead was squandered by the Chilean before Alcaraz won the first set 7-5 in just under an hour.

When Alcaraz arrived in Paris after a loss to Jannik Sinner in a Saudi Arabia tournament, he showed some rustiness in the opening set, but found his breakthrough in the second set – especially on the return.

The world number 37 also had no answer to the groundstrokes from Alcaraz, who fired powerful shots on both wings and was unafraid to come forward when necessary.

Jarry made more mistakes as the game went on, the pressure to hit the lines led to a few missed balls, and on match point he missed again, giving Alcaraz the win.

Since Sinner left the tournament with a virus, Alcaraz is now one of the clear favorites. Alexander Zverev decided to take a look at the man he may have to play against in the final and watched his rival up close on the sidelines.

Next up for Alcaraz is the winner of Ugo Humbert against Marcos Giron.

Jack Draper won the biggest title of his career at the 500cc race in Vienna last weekend. It was a close turnaround to prepare for Paris, but the Brit picked up where he left off with victory over Jiri Lehecka.

Draper closed the first set 7-5 in 39 minutes and broke in the 11th game with some pinpoint returns.

He benefited from a lucky net string early in the second set when he broke again, but aside from that, Draper’s serve accuracy proved too much for Lehecka as the Brit won 96% after his first serve.

Draper closed the game with an ace and recorded a 7-5, 6-2 victory in just over an hour, setting up a second-round clash with Taylor Fritz.

Alex de Minaur made easy work of Mariano Navone and defeated the Argentine 7:5 and 6:1. The No. 9 seed still has a chance of reaching the World Tour final but needs a strong performance in Paris this week to reach Turin.

Stefanos Tsitsipas was also a comfortable winner on Tuesday, defeating No. 10 seed Alejandro Tabilo 6-3, 6-4 in just over an hour.

It’s been a season of ups and downs for the Greek star, who hasn’t made it past the quarter-finals since Gstaad in July.

But success here would help him climb back into the top 10 and give him a chance of making it to Turin.

Casper Ruud lost 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-4 to Australian Jordan Thompson late last night in Paris, ending his chances of getting to Turin with a hammer blow.

It was a high quality game that had the crowd involved throughout, although there were plenty of trouble spots.

Thompson was given a point penalty but argued in a heated exchange with the referee – and he was lucky that moment didn’t spell his downfall.

Instead, he regrouped and played out the match, and now the Australian has beaten the Norwegian three times this year.

The day’s session in Bercy was not favorable for the seeds as Frances Tiafoe was beaten in three sets 6-7 (5), 7-6 (4), 6-3 by Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, while Lorenzo Musetti lost in straight sets against Jan lost -Lennard Struff.

Andrey Rublev lost in two breaks against Francisco Cerundolo and Alex Michelsen confidently defeated the big serve Hubert Hurkacz.

But Holger Rune at least defeated Matteo Arnaldi in straight sets and ensured that one of the seeds made it into the early starting blocks. In the next round he will face Alexander Bublik.

These early defeats will have an impact on which players make it to the World Tour Finals, with three spots remaining for the event in Turin.