Fritz Squanders Two Match Points as Alcaraz Win Ends His Turin Hopes

Taylor Fritz was one point from the ATP Finals twice on Friday night, and he lost both of them. The 29-year-old American led Carlos Alcaraz 5-3 in the second set of their Paris Masters quarter-final, with a match point on Alcaraz’s serve and then another on his own, and Alcaraz saved them both. The Spaniard went on to win 6-7 (10-12), 7-5, 6-3 in two hours and 43 minutes, reaching his first Paris semi-final and ending Fritz’s season in the same stroke. A win would have taken Fritz to Turin at Rafael Jodar’s expense. Instead the last place goes to the Spaniard.

How did Fritz lose a match he was winning?

He had Alcaraz beaten twice and could not finish either chance. Fritz won a first set that swung back and forth for almost 15 minutes in the tie-break, converting his third set point at 11-10 after Alcaraz had broken back to love at 5-5, the Rolex Paris Masters reports. He then broke Alcaraz to open a 4-3 lead in the second set, saved a break point to make it 5-3, and stood a point from victory on his opponent’s serve. Alcaraz held. Fritz then served for the match at 5-4, and Alcaraz saved the second match point with one of his trademark spectacular winners, broke back, and took the set 7-5 after one hour and two minutes.

The decider was not close. Alcaraz won four of the first five games, including two love holds, and narrowly missed a double break at 4-1, the tournament website reports. He stayed patient and waited until he was serving for the match to earn his first opportunity to seal it, doing so with an ace.

What did the result decide in Turin?

Everything about the eighth spot. Fritz would have reached the season-ending event at Jodar’s expense had he beaten Alcaraz to make the last four, Sky Sports reports, and he had looked out of the picture for Turin last week before winning his way into this position. The defeat leaves him 11th in the Race with 3,050 points to Jodar’s 3,234, Tennis365 reports, and the ATP Finals lineup is now complete: Alexander Zverev, Alcaraz, Ben Shelton, Daniil Medvedev, Arthur Fils, Flavio Cobolli, Frances Tiafoe and Jodar, in Turin from November 15 to 22.

Fritz was looking to become the third American representative in Turin, after Shelton and Tiafoe, Sky Sports reports. Shelton had already ended Tommy Paul’s hopes earlier on Friday with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 win, a result that secured Tiafoe’s place.

What happens to Fritz now?

His season is over. The Paris defeat was his last chance to qualify for Turin, and he missed out on the year-end event for the first time in three years, having reached it in each of the last two seasons. He also missed a second win over Alcaraz in eight meetings, with his only victory in the head-to-head coming at the Laver Cup in September 2025. His next tennis is the 2027 season, and his next target is the Australian Open in January. Zverev, who clinched the world No. 1 ranking in Vienna, is the top seed in Turin, and his own Shanghai week included a practice-court claim he never answered.

What did Alcaraz say about the escape?

That he stopped fighting the nerves and started enjoying the match. “I tried not to let myself down in those difficult moments, to stay strong mentally,” he told Sky Sports. “We played incredible tennis, both of us, and I used the energy of the people to give them what they wanted to watch. To entertain them.” He told the tournament website that he had started the match well and then got nervous, that Fritz took advantage and raised his level, and that after 5-3 he started to feel more relaxed: “Once I started letting my shots go, I found my smile again and fed off the energy from the crowd. That really helped me.”

He also reached for a parallel the Paris crowd recognised at once. The match reminded him of the Roland-Garros final last year, when he saved three match points against Jannik Sinner before lifting his second Coupe des Mousquetaires, the Rolex Paris Masters reports, and he called Friday’s match one of the most special he has ever played. Sinner, for his part, confirmed on Friday that he is splitting with coach Darren Cahill and that Magnus Norman will take over, which means the two men from that Paris final are both starting new chapters at once.

What does the spot mean for Jodar?

A debut at the season-ending event, earned without hitting a ball on Friday. Jodar takes the eighth and final place in Turin, where the ATP Finals run from November 15 to 22, and he will be the only debutant in a field led by Zverev and Alcaraz. He got there the strange way: his qualification depended on his compatriot Alcaraz beating Fritz, and Alcaraz did it by saving two match points. Jodar had been the man Fritz needed to pass, and Fritz came within one point of doing it twice. The Spaniard now has nine days to prepare for the biggest tournament of his career, and his first match in Turin will be his first at the season-ending event.

What happens next?

Saturday, against Casper Ruud. Ruud beat Portugal’s Nuno Borges 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 in his quarter-final, Sky Sports reports, and the other semi-final is Ben Shelton against home player Luca Van Assche, who beat Australian qualifier Rinky Hijikata 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 7-5. An Alcaraz-Shelton final would repeat their five-set epic in the US Open quarter-finals, a match Shelton won in a final-set tie-break, Sky Sports notes.

The wider picture is that Alcaraz had barely played in Paris before Friday. He received a first-round bye, advanced through the round of 16 after Matteo Berrettini withdrew, and had spent only one hour and 41 minutes on court at the Plenitude Arena before the quarter-final, the tournament website reports. Zverev, who has already secured the year-end No. 1 after Bergs beat Alcaraz in Shanghai, is the top seed for Turin, and Alcaraz is chasing a title he has never won in three previous tries. Fritz’s two match points were the closest anyone has come to changing that field, and they are the reason the eighth seat in Turin belongs to Jodar, who got there because Fritz could not close.