Big sensation in the capital, with the premature elimination of the Spaniard, dominated by the 45th player in the world.
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Carlos Alcaraz definitely cannot do it at Bercy. The Spanish prodigy was eliminated on Tuesday October 31 as soon as he entered the Masters 1000 in Paris, on 2e round, outclassed by the Russian Roman Safiullin, winner in two short sets (6-3, 6-4). Alcaraz missed his match, multiplying errors and unforced errors. The world number two disappears from the table and worries before the last major meeting of the season, the Masters bringing together the best players in the world from November 12.
For the first time in a year, Carlos Alcaraz is heading home after arriving at a tournament. We have to go back to October 4, 2022 to find traces of the Spaniard’s elimination as soon as he entered the fray. Packaged last week in Basel to treat pain, the Murcian was visibly not completely recovered, as if out of shape. But above all out of the picture, far from his best level against an opponent who was quick to take advantage of the opportunity. Once past two starts of sets which we will put on the occasion of the discovery of such an appointment, Safiullin went to seek on merit the most beautiful victory of his career, at 26 years old.
Overpowering in service, rarely found wanting, the 45e player in the ATP ranking recalled that his solid second part of the season (final in ATP 250, defeat in five sets against the 14th in the world Tommy Paul at the US Open, victories against Alexander Zverev or Andy Murray in Shanghai, etc.) owed nothing to chance. Alcaraz showed himself to be weak, especially on his second serve.
Eliminated in Bercy in the third round in 2021 by Frenchman Hugo Gaston, in the quarter-finals last year after giving up against the future winner of the tournament Holger Rune, Carlos Alcaraz is still struggling to conquer the capital. The hypothesis of seeing the last winner of Wimbledon regain the throne of world number one from Novak Djokovic by the end of the season is becoming a little more improbable. Just like his chances of being at their peak for the leaders’ meeting, the Masters in Turin in less than two weeks.