Ugo Humbert launches the evening of the round of 16 in Paris-Bercy with a bang. He beats Carlos Alcaraz 61 36 75, equals his most prestigious career victory and puts Carlos Alcaraz’s position as world number 2 at risk.
In the first match of the evening session on Centrale, Humbert completed the second career victory against a world number 2 and thus reached the quarter-finals for the fourth time in a Masters 1000. He is the first player to beat a Top3 in tournament since 2010. On that occasion Michael Llodra beat the then number 3 Novak Djokovic in the third round and Gael Monfils eliminated the then number 2 Roger Federer in the semifinals.
Alcaraz will therefore close this week with 7,210 points, but he is not sure of remaining number 2. If Alexander Zverev, who defeated Arthur Fils in the round of 16, were to reach the final, he would overtake the Murcian, rising to number 2 in the ATP ranking. But first the German, engaged in his 31st quarter-final in a Masters 1000, will have to relaunch the chase against Alcaraz by beating Stefanos Tsitsipas, eleventh in the Race, who has defeated him 10 times in fifteen direct clashes.
If Zverev were to overcome Alcaraz, Sinner and the Murcian would have a 50% chance of finishing in the same group at the Nitto ATP Finals. In fact, based on the way in which the draw is carried out, the number 1 seed is placed in one group and the number 2 in the other. Then the numbers 3 and 4 seeds are paired with the two different groups (who therefore cannot end up in the same group, and the same goes for the numbers 5 and 6, and finally for the numbers 7 and 8.
If, however, Alcaraz were to arrive in Turin as number 2, the two great rivals could not be drawn in the same group.
