Tennis This Week: Upsets in Paris, 5 November

As of Thursday afternoon, 5 November 2026, this week in tennis is all about Paris. At the last Masters event of the season, six seeds, top seed Alexander Zverev among them, went out on Wednesday, and on Thursday the first pieces of the quarter-final line-up fell into place. Ben Shelton and Tommy Paul reached the last eight and will meet each other, while Carlos Alcaraz advanced to the quarter-finals without stepping on court. On the women's side, attention is turning to the WTA Finals, which start on Sunday at Indian Wells.

Our previous roundup covered Alcaraz's title in Vienna and the opening rounds in Paris; you can find it in tennis this week, 1 November. The Basel final, still in progress when that piece was written, went to Valentin Vacherot, who beat Jiri Lehecka 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 after losing the first set. It is the second ATP title of his career.

Where the matches are played

The Rolex Paris Masters runs from 2 to 8 November at La Défense Arena in Nanterre, on an indoor hard court. Indoors there is no wind or sun, the bounce is consistent and the server usually has the upper hand. That is why matches often go to tie-breaks and a handful of points decide a set. This week's scores bear this out: at least one tie-break was played in eight of Wednesday's fourteen singles matches.

Tennis this week: an upset Wednesday in Paris

The round of 32 was a hard day for the seeds. World No. 1 and top seed Alexander Zverev lost to Lorenzo Musetti 7-6(5), 6-2. Zverev led 5-2 in the first-set tie-break; Musetti won five points in a row to turn the set around and controlled the second set. According to the ATP, it is Musetti's second win over a world No. 1. For Zverev, Paris was his first tournament since rising to the top of the rankings. Musetti won the title in Lyon last month and, according to the ATP, has won eight of his last nine matches; that form suggests the result is part of a run rather than a one-off.

The day's other big result came from qualifier Rinky Hijikata. The Australian beat tenth seed Novak Djokovic 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 after dropping the first set. The match lasted 2 hours and 13 minutes; Hijikata saved all three break points he faced in the final set and closed it with a forehand winner. Djokovic had won their two previous meetings. The defeat also ended Djokovic's chances of reaching the season finale in Turin.

It would be wrong to put these results down to a single cause. Still, on an indoor hard court even a small drop in first-serve percentage can swing a set; Zverev's lost tie-break lead can be seen as a clear example.

Other results

On Wednesday, fourth seed Daniil Medvedev lost to Ignacio Buse of Peru 6-4, 6-4. Eighth seed Alex de Minaur fell to Tomas Martin Etcheverry 7-6(2), 6-3. Quentin Halys saved four match points against seventh seed Frances Tiafoe and won 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(9); that result also confirmed Arthur Fils's place in Turin. Alcaraz beat Alex Michelsen 7-6(4), 6-3. Taylor Fritz edged Alex Molcan 6-7(6), 7-5, 7-6(5), with all three sets decided by tie-breaks. Fils beat Tomas Machac 6-3, 7-6(4) and Paul beat Daniel Merida 6-1, 6-1. Home players Luca Van Assche and Arthur Rinderknech also reached the last 16.

In Thursday's first match Paul beat Halys 7-6(3), 6-4 in 1 hour and 35 minutes. Shelton then lost the first set to Rinderknech but came through 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(5) in 2 hours and 3 minutes to reach the quarter-finals. Alcaraz's match against Matteo Berrettini was not played; Alcaraz advances by walkover. The results of Hijikata against Etcheverry and of Nuno Borges against Buse were not yet known at the time of writing.

Shelton's match sums up the week: a set down, a final-set tie-break and more than two hours on court. With Halys and Rinderknech out on Thursday, the French players left in the draw are Fils and Van Assche, both of whom are on court on Thursday. Paul's win over Halys was shorter and more controlled; according to the ATP's headlines, it keeps his Turin hopes alive.

What's next and what to watch

On Centre Court Musetti faces Van Assche, who beat 15th seed Learner Tien 7-6(4), 6-4 in the previous round; the winner meets the winner of Hijikata against Etcheverry in the quarter-finals. In the evening session, Fils against Fritz will start not before 7 pm Paris time and Jan-Lennard Struff against Casper Ruud not before 8.30 pm. The winner of Fils against Fritz will face Alcaraz in the quarter-finals.

In the race to Turin, six of the eight places are settled: Zverev, Alcaraz, Shelton, Medvedev, Flavio Cobolli and Fils. For the last two, Paul and Fritz need to reach the final in Paris, while Tiafoe and Rafael Jodar, both already out of the draw, wait on other results. That makes Friday's quarter-final between Shelton and Paul more than a ticket to the semi-finals: it may help decide the last players in the season finale. The Nitto ATP Finals will be played in Turin from 15 to 22 November.

The WTA Finals run from 8 to 15 November at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in California, outdoors on hard courts. Group 1 brings together Elena Rybakina, Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula and Linda Noskova; Group 2 has Aryna Sabalenka, Mirra Andreeva, Elina Svitolina and Karolina Muchova. Rybakina against Noskova and Gauff against Pegula open on Sunday, followed on Monday by Sabalenka against Muchova and Andreeva against Svitolina. The top two in each group reach the semi-finals.

The colours of an indoor court

An indoor hard court looks different under artificial light from an outdoor one. The lines are sharper, the surface colour flatter, and there are almost no shadows. That clean look is also a good starting point for compositions that view the court from above. Our piece on tennis court surfaces and colours looks at the colours of each surface and where they come from. Aurecort's Framed Art Series also builds the court's lines and surface colour into an arrangement on canvas; the standard size is 50 × 70 cm. For printing and signage outside the tennis theme, see Aurecort Reklam.

We explain how these roundups are prepared, which sources they rely on and how to follow them on our daily tennis roundup page.

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