After multiple years of early exits, Carlos Alcaraz finally got his hands on the Paris Masters title.

Alcaraz came through a difficult match in the final with Ben Shelton, beating the American 7-5, 7-5 to clinch the ATP Masters 1000 crown for the first time in his career. The Spaniard is now just the Canadian Open title and the Shanghai Masters title away from completing the Career Golden Masters; a feat only Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner have achieved.

With his triumph, Alcaraz has just managed a feat that only his elder compatriot Rafael Nadal can match.

Carlos Alcaraz completes feat only Rafael Nadal can match

Alcaraz has now won nine ATP Masters 1000 titles at 23 years and 187 days old. At the same age, only Nadal had won more, with the King of Clay having captured 15 crowns at that point in his career. Federer and Djokovic had won four and five, respectively.

Heading into this year’s Paris Masters, Alcaraz was in danger of going an entire season without winning an ATP Masters 1000 title for the first time since 2021. Before suffering a wrist injury that kept him out of action for four months, the seven-time Grand Slam champion had made the semifinals in Indian Wells, the third round in Miami and the final in Monte-Carlo.

How many majors will Carlos Alcaraz win next year?

The wrist injury saw Alcaraz miss four straight ATP Masters 1000 events in Madrid, Rome, Montreal and Cincinnati. He returned to action at the premium level in Shanghai, where he was knocked out in the third round by Zizou Bergs.

Alcaraz came close to bowing out of the Paris Masters in the quarterfinals against Taylor Fritz, but saved two match points before rallying to win the bout in three sets. He then earned back-to-back straight-sets victories over Casper Ruud and Shelton to triumph in the French capital.

Prior to this year’s campaign, Alcaraz’s best run at the Paris Masters was a quarterfinal finish, which he managed once in 2022. In each of his past three attempts before 2026, Alcaraz did not make it past the third round.

Carlos Alcaraz’s next tournament campaign on the ATP Tour

After winning it all in Paris, Alcaraz will now head to Turin for his final tournament of the 2026 season: the ATP Finals. At such a young age, Alcaraz has won almost everything in tennis, but has yet to go all the way at the ATP Finals.

Last year, Alcaraz reached the championship match in Turin, but fell to his biggest rival, Sinner. With the Italian sidelined until at least January with a knee injury, this year may mark Alcaraz’s best chance yet to clinch the ATP Finals title.

Alcaraz will be making his fourth appearance at the ATP Finals and will be one of the favourites to win the tournament alongside Alexander Zverev.