2024 Paris Masters - Carlos Alcaraz Loses on Thursday

By Shane Lambert

The Thursday results from the 2024 Paris Masters included a shocker. Carlos Alcaraz, the No. 2 seed in the event, lost to Ugo Humbert. The result reversed a two-match losing streak for Humbert to Alcaraz. Furthermore, it flipped a 6-3, 6-3 result from an indoor/hard-court match not too long ago. Humbert took Alcaraz out in a competitive third set, winning 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 to advance to the quarters.

Other results from the day included Holger Rune defeating France's Arthur Cazaux. Rune's 2024 season has not been his best. But he is into the quarters in a draw where some top talent has gone out. Even as just the No. 13 seed, Rune is an important player heading into the business end of the tournament.

Alexander Zverev: Highest Seed Remaining

But Alexander Zverev is the highest seed to make it into the quarterfinals. He is the No. 3 seed and he survived his Thursday match, beating Arthur Fils in yet another three-set contest. The final score in that match was 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. Other early results from Paris saw Alex de Minaur, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Jordan Thompson, and Karen Khachanov advance.

Another noteworthy player to fall in the round of sixteen was Jack Draper. He was coming off of a title from last week and did some damage this week as well, eliminating Taylor Fritz on Wednesday. But Draper may have run out of steam after playing so many matches in such a short time frame. He fell to Australia's de Minaur, the No. 9 seed in Paris.

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Zverev vs Tsitsipas: 2024 Paris Masters quarterfinal

De Minaur will face Rune in the quarterfinal round. This is on the same half of the draw where Zverev will face Tsitsipas.

Rune and de Minaur have split their ATP matches in the past, going 2-2. De Minaur won their last two matches, but Rune beat the Aussie in both of the matches played on indoor and hard-court conditions. It's a hard match to pick a winner in, with perhaps de Minaur just a mild favorite due to some stronger results this season.

Meanwhile, Tsitsipas holds a 10-5 advantage over Zverev in head-to-head matches. The German is the top seed alive in Paris, but he is staring at an opponent who has taken him out of many events in the past.

Ugo Humbert: Heading to the Final?

On the bottom half of the draw, unseeded Jordan Thompson will face Humbert. While not discounting the Australian, Humbert is playing in his home country -- and he has played well in France before. Humbert has titles from Marseille and Metz in his history, both tournaments hosted in France. Furthermore, both of those events were played on indoor/hard-court conditions, the same conditions for the Paris Masters. You have to like Humbert's chances of getting through to at least the semifinals. 

At the time of writing (late on Thursday evening in Paris time), Grigor Dimitrov was up a set in his round-of-sixteen match. He would face Khachanov in the quarterfinal round in what would have the potential to be a competitive match.

But as the tournament looks, the winner of the Tsitsipas vs Zverev match would be the biggest threat to the title. The latter player is the most proven player remaining in the draw but he's hardly a lock with just a 5-10 record against his next opponent.

The spots in the Paris final are wide open. It looks like it will be either Tsitsipas or Zverev on the top half of the draw and then either Humbert or Dimitrov in the bottom half.

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