Carlos Alcaraz survived a tiebreak and a tense second set to beat Ben Shelton and lift his first Paris Masters title in Nanterre.
Carlos Alcaraz has added the Paris Masters to his trophy cabinet for the first time, beating world number four Ben Shelton 7-6 (7-5) 7-5 in the final at the Plenitude Arena in Nanterre.
The opening set went the distance. Neither man could find a decisive break, and it was settled in a tiebreak, where Alcaraz held firm to take it 7-5. That gave the Spaniard the early edge in a contest defined by big serving and fine margins.
Shelton, the American left-hander, kept pushing in the second set and made Alcaraz work for every game. But at 5-5 the Spaniard found the key moment, then closed out the set 7-5 and the match.
The win gives Alcaraz a title at one of the last big stops on the indoor hard-court calendar, an event that had so far eluded him. For Shelton, it is a frustrating finish after a week in which he went toe-to-toe with one of the sport's elite and came up just short in both sets.
