By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday, October 29, 2024

Carlos Alcaraz defeated Nicolas Jarry in Paris on Tuesday to reach the round of 16.

Photo source: TTV

It's fun to look for the world No. 2 this week Carlos AlcarazWith Jannik Sinner out of the draw and Novak Djokovic never taking part in the Rolex Paris Masters, he is the clear favorite to win the title.

So far, so good.

The second-seeded Spaniard defeated Chilean Nicolas Jarry 7-5, 6-1 on Tuesday to reach the round of 16, where either Ugo Humbert or Marcos Giron will await on Thursday.

It was a relatively straightforward triumph for the 21-year-old four-time Grand Slam winner. He avenged a loss to Jarry in the semifinals in Buenos Aires this year by converting four of five break points.

He battled through a tricky opening set before really picking up momentum in the second set. Alcaraz was broken at love in the first game at 5-4, but then won eight of the last nine games against Jarry.

“I think I played really good tennis (in the first set), but it was complicated at the end,” said Alcaraz, who improved to 52-10 this season and 16-4 in Masters 1000 events. “I'm really happy to get through the opening set. It was really important for me to go into the second with more confidence.”

It was a tough day for other top seeds. Top seed Jannik Sinner set the tone with his absence due to illness. Later, sixth seed Andrey Rublev and seventh seed Casper Ruud were ousted, sparking a battle for the final three spots at this year's ATP Finals.

Novak Djokovic, Ruud and Rublev currently occupy those three spots, but could be overtaken by title races from Alex de Minaur, Grigor Dimitrov and Stefanos Tsitsipas.