Paris ATP Masters Preview

The Rolex Paris Masters is one of the most prestigious tournaments on the ATP calendar and serves as the final Masters 1000 event of the season. Held annually at the Accor Arena in the heart of the French capital, this tournament has been captivating fans of the sport for decades.

The tournament not only offers players the opportunity of gaining huge ranking points, but provides pretty decent prize money as well, so it’s no surprise then that it attracts some of the biggest names in the game.

The Paris ATP Masters is held indoors and, as such, creates a unique challenge that separates the world’s best players from the pretenders. For fans, the surface also helps to create a real spectacle, one that rewards fast, aggressive play with big serves and sharp volleys often coming out on top.

Did you know? This year’s tournament starts on October 25th, with the final games being played on the 2nd of November.

Last year, World Number 3 Alexander Zverev from Germany defeated Frenchman Ugo Humbert 6-2, 6-2 in the Paris Masters final. This year, however, neither are listed amongst the favourites for the tournament.

Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, who have, between them, won the last eight Grand Slams on offer are the favorites for this year’s tournament. Their already iconic rivalry is set to be renewed so check out the Stake sign up bonus terms and conditions and back your favorite. Excitingly for fans, the only way that they can face each other in Paris is if they meet in the final. It would also represent an opportunity for a new name to be put on the winner’s board with neither having previously gone the distance.

Behind them Zverev features once again, but no player has won back-to-back titles since Novak Djokovic almost a decade ago and such is the dominance of Alcaraz and Sinner, that it’s hard to see beyond either of them.

Unless you’re clinically a psychopath or German, there’s no fun in watching the favourites romp to success, swotting aside anyone that stands in their way. The real beauty of sport is about seeing an underdog do well.

Leicester City’s 2016 Premier League victory, Greece’s gritty and against the odds win at Euro 2004 and Emma Raducanu’s incredible US Open win at just the age of 18 back in 2021 all stand out as supreme moments of sporting underdog folklore.

Unfortunately, we think it’s unlikely that an outsider of that magnitude could win the Paris Masters this year, but there’s still a couple of dark horses to look out for. One being Daniil Medvedev, the current World Number 16.

Why? Because his skillset seems to be perfectly suited to the surface. He is strong, powerful and aggressive and has history in this tournament too. Whilst his serve isn’t quite up to the standard of Andy Roddick’s, he still does have the complete package for this tournament.

Aside from Medvedev we of course have Zverev, but after winning last year’s tournament we’re not entirely sure how unexpected victory this time round would be. Two other players with the skillset suited for success in Paris are Andrey Rublev and Hubert Hurkacz, both of whom are big, athletic players.

Tim Henman are Andy Murray are long gone, leaving Jack Draper as the last hope for British tennis. Whilst the British Number 1 is seen as the natural successor the supremely successful Scot, his chances of winning this tournament are, in truth, pretty slim.

In fact, his chances of making the tournament itself are pretty slim. He’s had a good year by all accounts, but is still outside the top 200 in the world rankings. If he were to qualify, let alone win the tournament, it would be an underdog story akin to the Leicester City tale!