Roman Safiullin adds first Top 3 win to breakout year by ousting Carlos Alcaraz at Paris Masters

The ATP season may be winding down, but Roman Safiullin isn’t done from adding to his banner year.

On Tuesday evening, Safiullin secured the first Top 3 victory of his career after taking down second-ranked Carlos Alcaraz, 6-3, 6-4. The Russian qualifier erased break deficits in both sets and went nine for 10 at the net in sealing the impressive victory after one hour and 39 minutes.

Safiullin is just the third player to post a straight-set win over Alcaraz in 2023, joining Fabian Marozsan (Rome) and Jannik Sinner (Beijing). The 26-year-old now owns 20 tour-level wins this year—he held a combined 12 to his name in the seasons prior.

In July, Safiullin celebrated his first trip to a major quarterfinal at Wimbledon. That run propelled him inside the Top 50 for the first time. In September, he contested his first ATP final in Chengdu and is looking to build off a career-high ranking of No. 41 set at the end of that month.

Alcaraz suffered his third loss in five matches, as his hopes of finishing as the year-end No. 1 for the second successive year continue to diminish. The Spaniard, who had reached the semifinals or better at 12 of 14 events he played to start the season, trailed Novak Djokovic by 500 points. Alcaraz had pulled out of last week's 500 event in Basel, citing lower back and left foot injuries.

Djokovic will look to extend his lead in the year-end race when he opens his bid for a seventh Bercy crown against Tomas Martin Etcheverry.

For a place in the quarterfinals, Safiullin meets compatriot Karen Khachanov. The No. 16 seed beat Laslo Djere, 6-4, 7-5.