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Carlos Alcaraz has enjoyed a tremendously successful season, winning two majors (Roland Garros and Wimbledon), an ATP Masters 1000 event at Indian Wells and an ATP 500 in Beijing. But his great rival, Jannik Sinner, has already clinched ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by PIF honours and Alcaraz is not shy about admitting the Italian has had the better year.

“For sure. I mean, [it] doesn't matter that I have beaten Jannik three times. Probably I didn't play good tennis in some tournaments. My percentage of wins this year is really, really high, but Jannik is another level this year,” Alcaraz said. “[He has earned] over 91 per cent of wins this year. So just [a] few players have done this before.

“But yeah, I think [all] players are looking for being more consistent during the year. In every tournament that you're going to play, you want to go far or as far as you can. That's my goal the next year. In the tournaments that I didn't play well or I didn't go as far as I wanted, just try to do it.”

Alcaraz has been consistent, winning 83.6 per cent (51-10) of his matches in 2024 according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index. Sinner has just been more consistent, claiming 91.5 per cent (65-6) of his matches.

Despite the battle for year-end No. 1 being over, Alcaraz is keen to finish his season on a high, beginning this week at the Rolex Paris Masters, where he is seeded second.

Home favourite Ugo Humbert maintained his impressive record on indoor hard courts in France on Monday at the Rolex Paris Masters, where he moved past American Brandon Nakashima 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

The Frenchman has won his past nine matches on French indoor courts, having lifted trophies in Metz in 2023 and in Marseille in February. Backed by vocal home support in Paris, Humbert fended off both break points he faced against Nakashima in a tight deciding set to book his spot in the second round after two hours and six minutes.

ALLEZ, UGO!!! ALLEZ, UGO!!! ???@HumbertUgo holds his nerve to defeat Nakashima on home soil and will now face Giron in the second round.#RolexParisMasters | @RolexPMasters pic.twitter.com/CrUSRwP6GZ

The 15th seed Humbert, who is the first Frenchman seeded at the ATP Masters 1000 event since Gael Monfils in 2021, now leads Nakashima 3-0 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series.

Chasing his third title of the season, the No. 18 player in the PIF ATP Rankings will next play Marcos Giron after the American beat #NextGenATP Chinese lefty Shang Juncheng 7-6(6), 7-6(6).

With the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin edging to a close, the battle to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals took further shape in Basel and Vienna, where Turin hopefuls Casper Ruud, Andrey Rublev, Alex de Minaur, Grigor Dimitrov and Tommy Paul competed.

With two weeks to go until the Nitto ATP Finals, ATPTour.com looks at the movers of the week in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin as of Monday, 28 October.

Alex de Minaur – Ninth (3,555 points)
The Aussie remains one place outside the Turin qualification cutoff but closed the gap on eighth-placed Andrey Rublev (3,720 points) after reaching the semi-finals in Vienna. De Minaur enjoyed a run to the semi-finals at the ATP 500, collecting 200 points in the process. The 25-year-old, who has struggled with a hip injury since Wimbledon, beat Jan-Lennard Struff, Flavio Cobolli and #NextGenATP Czech Jakub Mensik in Austria. De Minaur is aiming to make his debut at the Nitto ATP Finals, held from 10-17 November.

View PIF ATP Live Race To Turin

Andrey Rublev – Eighth (3,720 points)
Rublev added another 100 precious points to his total by advancing to the quarter-finals in Basel. The 27-year-old, who has won two ATP Tour titles in 2024, is aiming to compete at the year-end event for the fifth consecutive season. Rublev will compete at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Paris this week.

Former Top 5 stars Stan Wawrinka and Kei Nishikori will be in action at the same ATP Challenger Tour event this week.

Wawrinka, the three-time major champion and Nishikori, the former No. 4 in the PIF ATP Rankings, will compete in the Slovak Open 2024. The ATP Challenger 125 tournament is being held in Bratislava.

Wawrinka, who also played ATP Challenger Tour events in Aix-en-Provence and Bordeaux earlier in the season, will begin his tournament against Maximilian Marterer.

Nishikori, who reached the quarter-finals in Como and Genoa in the past two months, will play third seed Marton Fucsovics in the first round.

Other players to watch include #NextGenATP star Joao Fonseca and fourth seed Jacob Fearnley, who owns a 23-1 ATP Challenger Tour record this season.

The final ATP Masters 1000 of the season, the Rolex Paris Masters, begins Monday with a full slate of action. Among the stars who will play are top-ranked Frenchman Ugo Humbert, 10th seed Stefanos Tsitsipas and 11th seed Tommy Paul.

View the full Monday order of play below to see who is competing, on which court, and when they are scheduled.

ORDER OF PLAY - MONDAY, 28 OCTOBER 2024

COURT CENTRAL start 11 a.m.
Tomas Machac (CZE) vs [WC] Arthur Rinderknech (FRA)
[Q] Quentin Halys (FRA) vs Francisco Cerundolo (ARG)
[15] Ugo Humbert (FRA) vs Brandon Nakashima (USA)

Not Before 7 p.m.
[10] Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE) vs [LL] Roberto Carballes Baena (ESP)

Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev and Daniil Medvedev have qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals. This week’s Rolex Paris Masters will play a critical role in deciding who will join them.

Taylor Fritz is in pole position to return to the season finale, to be played from 10-17 November, for the second time. In 2022, the American reached the semi-finals in Turin.

The fifth-placed Fritz has 4,290 points and can guarantee his place at the year-end championships by making the quarter-finals at the season's final ATP Masters 1000 event. There are also other scenarios in which he would qualify earlier in the tournament based on the performance of players below him in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin.

PIF ATP Live Race To Turin (entering Paris)

Sixth-placed Novak Djokovic is not competing in Paris. Since the Serbian is 380 points behind the American, Fritz is guaranteed to finish the regular season ahead of him in the Live Race.

Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler gave the fans in Vienna something to cheer about on Sunday when they clinched their second title at the Erste Bank Open.

The Austrians, who triumphed at the indoor hard-court ATP 500 in 2022, rallied to defeat Neal Skupski and Michael Venus 4-6, 6-3, 10-1. With the one-hour, 25-minute victory, the duo improved to eight consecutive wins after lifting the trophy in Antwerp last week.

“The crowd went crazy today. With 10,000 people, it was an unbelievable atmosphere and we’re really happy with how the match ended,” said Miedler. “Now it’s time to celebrate. We managed to serve well [in the Match Tie-break], connect on the returns. It’s amazing to play a 10-1 tie-break against them.”

Erler and Miedler led by a break in the opening set, but lost four consecutive games to fall behind in the championship match. Undeterred, they clawed their way back in a well-fought second set, during which they produced some scintillating tennis on return to shift the momentum in their favour in the Match Tie-break.

Buoyed by the home support at a sold-out Wiener Stadthalle, Erler and Miedler finished with a flourish to seal their eighth ATP Tour title as a team, winning 12 of the final 13 points.

Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard completed a perfect week of sizzling serving on Sunday to upset Ben Shelton and lift the trophy at the Swiss Indoors Basel.

The No. 50 in the PIF ATP Rankings prevailed 6-4, 7-6(4) against the sixth-seeded Shelton to become the lowest-ranked champion since Basel became a tour-level event in 1975. The 6’8” Frenchman hit 22 aces in the championship match to clinch his maiden ATP 500 crown without dropping serve all week.

“It’s amazing to win a tournament like that, a 500, for the first time for me,” said Mpetshi Perricard, who arrived in Basel having lost eight of his previous nine matches. “I just can be happy with myself, with what I did today and the past five days. It’s amazing to win here… [Before this] it was a tough month for me, but it’s always good when the victories are there.”

✨ The Age of Mpetshi Perricard ✨@MpetshiG's meteoric rise continues as he claims his maiden ATP 500 title, defeating Shelton 6-4 7-6(4) in Basel!#SwissIndoorsBasel pic.twitter.com/ojVsjRNvDG

Mpetshi Perricard’s championship-match clash with Shelton seemed destined to be serve-dominated from the outset. Both players stepped on court for their second Lexus ATP Head2Head encounter having not dropped serve en route to the final. That pattern was soon snapped, however, when the Frenchman took advantage of an uncharacteristically slow start from Shelton to break the lefty's serve in the third game of the match.

The Rolex Paris Masters, the season’s final ATP Masters 1000 event, is here. There are plenty of storylines to follow, from Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz chasing maiden glory at the tournament to the intense PIF ATP Live Race To Turin.

ATPTour.com looks at 10 things to watch at Bercy.

1) Who will qualify for Turin? Four singles places remain at the Nitto ATP Finals, with Sinner, Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev and Daniil Medvedev already guaranteed a spot at the season finale. Who will join them? Taylor Fritz, who made the semi-finals on his debut in 2022, will try to return to Inalpi Arena. The American is fifth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin. Among those competing in Paris are seventh-placed Casper Ruud (3,845 points), Andrey Rublev (3,720) and Alex de Minaur (3,555), who are all jockeying for position.

2) Sinner top seed: The Italian has already clinched ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by PIF honours. The 23-year-old has won seven tour-level titles this year and will attempt to claim an eighth this week in Paris. He has tallied a 1-2 record in the tournament, including a loss to Alcaraz in his debut in 2021. Sinner will begin his event against Ben Shelton or a qualifier/lucky loser.

3) Alcaraz’s Paris push: Two years ago, Alcaraz earned his best Rolex Paris Masters result, reaching the quarter-finals. Will he advance deeper this edition? The Spaniard, who is the second seed, will play Nicolas Jarry or a qualifier/lucky loser in his opening match. Alcaraz has won four titles this year, most recently claiming the crown in Beijing.

It was a sigh of relief for Jack Draper on Sunday after he withstood a late charge from Karen Khachanov to clinch the Erste Bank Open title. 

The Briton stood firm in a 6-4, 7-5 triumph to secure his second ATP Tour title. Trailing 0-4 in the second set, Khachanov rattled off five consecutive games to shift the momentum firmly in his favour. However, Draper dialled back in to win the biggest title of his career.

“I was playing so good, and then the momentum shifted,” said Draper, who improved to 37-21 on the season. “Honestly, I didn’t feel too nervous or tight, I just missed a few balls and made some wrong decisions, and Karen picked up his level. That’s a testament to how good he is, he’s a fighter and he’s in great form.

“It got really tight there, but I stayed solid and in a good mental frame. Luckily I was able to come through, it was a relief. To win my first ATP 500, it feels incredible. I am incredibly happy and so proud of myself and my team. It’s for moments like this, so I am going to enjoy it.”

Nothing short of sensational ⚡️

Magnificent @jackdraper0 dazzles his way to the title in Vienna! #ErsteBankOpen | @ErsteBankOpen pic.twitter.com/mZaDFj2Hyt

Matteo Berrettini announced on Saturday that he has split with coach Francisco Roig, a former member of Rafael Nadal’s team.

“I wanted to let you know that Francisco Roig and I have decided to end our professional relationship,” Berrettini wrote to his fans on his Instagram Story. “I can only thank him for all the work he’s done this year; his dedication, and the results we’ve achieved together.

“It was a professional experience that allowed me to grow immensely, both on and off the court. I wish him all the best for the future and send him my heartfelt good luck. Thank you.”

The pair began working together for the 2024 season after Berrettini split with longtime coach Vincenzo Santopadre one year ago.

The Italian has won three ATP Tour titles this season, triumphing in Marrakech, Gstaad and Kitzbuhel. He will compete this week at the Rolex Paris Masters.

Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard is the new ace king of the ATP Tour.

Leveraging his 6’8” frame, the 21-year-old Frenchman has used his serve to devastating effect in 2024, serving on average five aces more per match than any other player.

‘Gio’ has fired 87 aces across four matches this week en route to the Swiss Indoors Basel final, topping even his jaw-dropping season average of 17.8 aces a match, which is a significantly higher mark than any other player on tour according to Infosys ATP Match Stats.

Coming into Basel, Mpetshi Perricard had served 375 aces across 21 matches. That mark was five aces more per match than Hubert Hurkacz, who has the next best 2024 match average of 12.8. (The Pole has served more total aces than any player this season, with 730 untouched serves in 57 matches.)

His booming deliveries have proven to be a key to his rise. After starting the 2024 season outside the Top 200, the young star is up to a career-high No. 37 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, after reaching the final of the ATP 500 this week. Mpetshi Perricard also claimed his maiden tour-level title in Lyon in May.

Felix Auger-Aliassime announced on Saturday his withdrawal from the Rolex Paris Masters due to a back injury.

“I tried to give myself every last opportunity to be fit to play in Paris but unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be this year ❤️‍???,” Auger-Aliassime wrote on Instagram. “After experiencing some pain in my back during Basel, I did some testing and attempts to practice before concluding that I wouldn’t be ready to compete in Paris at the level I’d hope for.

“That being said, it’s a bittersweet ending to the season and I’m going to do everything in my power to recoup mentally and physically for a strong start in 2025 ?? We keep going ?”

Auger-Aliassime was drawn to play Ben Shelton in the first round, with the winner to take on No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings Jannik Sinner in the second round. The Canadian is No. 27 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings.

Auger-Aliassime closed his post with a message to his fans: “Thank you as always for all of your kind words and support ??”

Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson are the fourth doubles team to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin. They join Marcelo Arevalo/Mate Pavic, Marcel Granollers/Horacio Zeballos and Simone Bolelli/Andrea Vavassori in the field.

The Australians have enjoyed a standout season, including a run to their first major title together at the US Open, where they lost just one set en route to the trophy. In New York, Purcell and Thompson became the first men from their country to win the US Open doubles crown since Todd Woodbridge triumphed with Swede Jonas Bjorkman in 2003.

The victory came on the back of heartbreak. Purcell and Thompson made the Wimbledon final, in which they earned three championship points before falling short to Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten.

The qualifiers have also claimed trophies in Dallas, Los Cabos and Houston this season. Although it did not contribute to his qualification with Purcell, Thompson won the Madrid ATP Masters 1000 title with Sebastian Korda.

Purcell, 26, was an alternate at the Nitto ATP Finals in 2022 with Matthew Ebden. Thompson, 30, will be at the season finale for the first time.

Youth was served on Saturday at the Swiss Indoors Basel. Specifically, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard served 17 aces as he continued his breakout season with a 7-6(6), 6-4 upset of Holger Rune. 

The Frenchman beat his fellow 21-year-old to improve to 4-1 against Top 20 players in the PIF ATP Rankings and advance to his biggest career final at the ATP 500. He will next meet 22-year-old Ben Shelton, after the American defeated 20-year-old Arthur Fils.

"It's amazing to be in the final. I played a good match today. It was difficult against Holger, but I found the key to win this match," said Mpetshi Perricard. "Inside of me there was a lot of emotion, but I tried to calm it down. It's nice to be in the final and I hope to get the win."

After beginning the season outside the Top 200, the Frenchman is up to No. 37 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings this week, setting him up for a career high. He entered the week at No. 50 in the PIF ATP Rankings.

PIF ATP Rankings: Biggest Movers Into The Top 50 (2024)

Even with the 2024 season into its final weeks, Jack Draper continues to break new ground.

The Briton held his nerve to edge Lorenzo Musetti 6-2, 6-4 on Saturday afternoon and reach the championship match at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna. In doing so, he advanced to his maiden ATP 500 final and simultaneously ensured he will on Monday rise into the Top 15 of the PIF ATP Rankings for the first time.

Draper battled through a topsy-turvy second set, in which he let slip a 4-2 lead and had to withstand a clear rise in Musetti’s level, before completing a one-hour, 49-minute victory.

“I thought the first set was a really high level from my side,” said Draper. “Definitely Lorenzo is a really tough competitor. I’ve known him since I was really young and playing against him is always so difficult. He’s had an incredible season.“The second set was really up and down. There were some long points and definitely some nerves and difficult moments, but I’m really proud of the way I kept on fighting and kept on going. In the end I got it done.”

The 22-year-old Draper was one of three players that age or younger to advance to an ATP 500 final on Saturday: In Basel, where all four semi-finalists were under 23, the 22-year-old Ben Shelton beat 20-year old Arthur Fils before Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard beat fellow 21-year-old Holger Rune.

Ben Shelton’s big-kicking lefty serve proved the key ingredient to snapping one of the ATP Tour’s most impressive open streaks on Saturday at the Swiss Indoors Basel.

The sixth-seeded American downed Arthur Fils 6-3, 7-6(9) in a hard-fought 78-minute semi-final encounter to halt Fils’ winning streak at ATP 500s after 13 matches. Shelton did not face a break point and won 88 per cent (45/51) of points behind his first delivery against Fils, according to Infosys ATP Stats, but he was still forced to rally from 3/6 in the second-set tie-break before completing his win.

“I served really well today, and I had to because I know what Arthur is capable of when he touches the ball,” said Shelton in his on-court interview. “The goal was to let him know I got clean hits on the ball as much as possible, and I executed really well. He served well [too], so there weren’t that many long points. A really high level match, and I’m not sure how I pulled that tie-break out in the second set.”

⭐️ PERFECTION FROM BIG BEN ⭐️@BenShelton defeats his good friend Fils 6-3 7-6(9) to reach the showpiece final in Basel!!!#SwissIndoorsBasel pic.twitter.com/sjVteMObn3

Shelton (aged 22) and Fils (20) were two of a host of young talents in ATP 500 semi-final action on Saturday. Shelton’s final opponent will be Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard (21), who later prevailed 7-6(6), 6-4 against fourth seed Holger Rune (also 21). Meanwhile at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna, Jack Draper ousted his fellow 22-year-old Lorenzo Musetti to reach his maiden ATP 500 final.

In a week when home favourite Dominic Thiem competed for the final time at the Erste Bank Open, Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler continue to keep the Austrian flag flying at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna.

The wild card pair booked its championship-match spot in dramatic fashion on Saturday at the indoor hard-court ATP 500. Erler and Miedler saved two match points in the Match Tie-break to down Wimbledon champions Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten and set a final showdown against Neal Skupski and Michael Venus.

Chasing their fifth tour-level title of the season, Heliovaara and Patten raced to the opening five games of Saturday’s semi-final clash. They were unable to maintain that momentum to close out victory, however. They soon fell 2-5 down in the second set and, although they rallied from to level at 5-5, Erler and Miedler soon levelled the match with their second break of serve in the set.

Then came the Match Tie-break drama. The Austrians rallied from 1-4 and then from two match points down at 7/9 before converting their own third match point for a famous triumph in which they converted both break points they earned, according to Infosys ATP Stats.

With their 85-minute victory, Erler and Miedler avenged their Marrakech final loss to Heliovaara and Patten and drew level at 1-1 in the Lexus ATP Head2Head series between the two teams.

Jannik Sinner does not yet know the identity of his opening-round opponent at next week’s Rolex Paris Masters. Yet he is already well aware that his return game will be put to the test early in his bid for a fourth ATP Masters 1000 crown of 2024.

The No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings has been drawn to face Ben Shelton or Felix Auger-Aliassime in his Paris opener. Whether it is the big-kicking lefty serve of World No. 23 Shelton or the flatter, right-handed delivery of No. 19 Auger-Aliassime he ultimately comes up against, Sinner knows he will need to adapt quickly in his first match indoors since he lifted the Rotterdam trophy in February.

“[It is a] very tough draw. A very, very difficult draw, especially here on these courts,” said Sinner in his pre-tournament press conference on Saturday in the French capital. “Big servers are very tough. But we go day by day. Then anything can happen. The draw can open up sometimes, or you never know what's coming.

“I try to prepare in the best possible way for the first-round match. It's going to be very difficult against Ben. It's very, very difficult in any case. And against Felix, I never won [in two attempts]. So it's going to be a very tough one.”

Sinner has won just one match in three appearances in Paris-Bercy. He fell to Carlos Alcaraz, in the pair’s maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting, on event debut in 2021. After another opening-round exit in 2022 (to Marc-Andrea Huesler), Sinner registered his first Rolex Paris Masters win against Mackenzie McDonald last year, but then withdrew before his third-round encounter with Alex de Minaur.

Alex de Minaur kept his hopes of qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals alive by dispatching #NextGenATP star Jakub Mensik 6-7(2), 6-3, 6-4 on Friday, to reach the semi-finals at the Erste Bank Open.

The 25-year-old, currently ninth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, dug deep and emerged victorious in two hours and 34 minutes.

“Now it’s crunch time. Every match counts. Every single point counts,” de Minaur said.

“I am gonna do my best. I haven’t played enough tennis this year, I have been sidelined for a while. So, plenty of energy and plenty of fight in me. So, I am going to make sure I give it my all every time I step out on court.”

Mensik was the first to switch gears as the opening set went into a tie-break. He employed aggressive groundstrokes and forced errors from the Australian to claim the first set 7-6(2). He fired 24 winners in the first set, including nine aces, according to the Infosys ATP Stats.