The court pace index for this year’s Paris Masters is 46.3, making it the fastest hard-court Masters 1000 of the year. And Alcaraz was thrown by the speed of the surface in Bercy.
He mentioned it after his opening win and doubled down after losing a three-set thriller to Ugo Humbert on Thursday night. “This is crazy. I don’t know. Probably and the fastest one, you know, in the last ten years in this tournament,” he said.
“So it surprised me a little bit, so I came here with not too many days. Probably I had to came, you know, earlier to get used to these conditions but I didn’t. But, you know, honestly all I can say is I don’t understand why they did it.”
Alcaraz has never had his best results on indoor hard courts compared to other surfaces. But he said the indoor element wasn’t a factor in Bercy – the speed was. And it looks like he’s keen to avoid a repeat at the ATP Finals.
Ahead of the top-eight tournament, Alcaraz’s coach Juan Carlos Ferrero has gone to great lengths to help his man get ready. According to Marca, Ferrero had the exact same court surface used at the Turin venue installed at his own tennis academy in Spain.
The installation was completed in October and both Alcaraz and Ferrero are already said to have tested it. The court is also made by the same brand that creates the surface for the Davis Cup Finals in Malaga, where the world No. 2 will represent Spain later this month.
Alcaraz will be competing in the ATP Finals for just the second time. The eight players who have won the most ranking points in a single season get to qualify for the year-end tournament.
The four-time Grand Slam champion qualified in 2022 but was forced to miss the event due to injury. He made his debut last year and lost his first round-robin group stage match but won the next two to reach the semi-final, where he was dumped out by Novak Djokovic.
Alcaraz will need to keep an eye on the other results in Paris this weekend to see where he will be seeded at the ATP Finals. If Alexander Zverev reaches the final, he will overtake the Spaniard as the world No. 2.
If Alcaraz is seeded third in Turin, it means he could be drawn in the same group as world No. 1 Jannik Sinner for the round-robin matches. If he stays in the second spot of the ranking, he won’t be able to play Sinner unless they reach the semi-finals or final.
