Ben Shelton (No. 3) beats Luca Van Assche 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 and Carlos Alcaraz (No. 2) knocks out Casper Ruud 6-4, 6-4 in the semi-finals of the Paris Masters on Saturday 7 November 2026. Alcaraz and Shelton meet in the final on Sunday 8 November, not before 3pm.
What came next: Alcaraz beats Shelton in the final, his first title in Paris.
How did Ben Shelton beat Luca Van Assche?
By coming from a set down, in 2hr 16min. Shelton makes fourteen forehand unforced errors in the first set, and Van Assche takes the only break of the set at 5-5 before serving it out 7-5.
The American levels 6-3 by breaking the Frenchman at 3-2. In the decider Van Assche breaks with a return winner to lead 3-1, but hands the break straight back with a few errors and a double fault. Shelton then takes five of the last six games. He finishes with 19 aces and not a single double fault, against five for the Frenchman.
Van Assche, ranked 47th, leaves Paris with the first Masters 1000 semi-final of his career, after wins over Lorenzo Musetti in the round of 16 and Rinky Hijikata in the quarter-finals.
How did Carlos Alcaraz beat Casper Ruud?
In 86 minutes, without facing a single break point. The Spaniard drops only nine points on serve. Ruud, his knees taped since his quarter-final, looks physically diminished. Alcaraz now leads their head-to-head 7-1.
It is his first final in Paris, a tournament where he had never gone past the quarter-finals, and his eleventh Masters 1000 final. He is on an eight-match winning streak, including the ATP 500 title in Vienna.
What to make of the final?
Alcaraz, ranked No. 3 and a nine-time Masters 1000 champion, leads Shelton, ranked No. 4, 3-1 in their meetings. But the American won the most recent one, in five sets in the US Open quarter-finals in September. Alcaraz won their only indoor match, at the 2024 Laver Cup in Berlin.
Shelton plays his third Masters 1000 final, the first outside Canada: he won the previous two, in Toronto in 2025 and in Montreal this season. It is his sixth final of the year, a total no American had reached in a single season since James Blake in 2006. Both players are in their first Paris final.
Sources
ATP Tour — Rolex Paris Masters 2026, tableau du simple
ATP Tour — Carlos Alcaraz eyes Ben Shelton revenge in Paris title showdown