Alcaraz Saves Two Match Points to Reach Paris Semis as Fritz Misses Turin and Jodar, 20, Takes the Last Place

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Carlos Alcaraz stood two points from defeat in Paris on Friday night, and then he played like a man who had decided the evening belonged to him. The second seed saved two match points against Taylor Fritz, recovered from a set and a break down, and won 6-7 (10), 7-5, 6-3 to reach the semi-finals of the Rolex Paris Masters for the first time.

The match lasted two hours and 45 minutes, and it decided far more than a semi-final place. Fritz was playing for his place at the ATP Finals in Turin. The defeat ended his season's biggest hope, and it confirmed the eighth and last qualifier for Turin: Rafael Jodar, 20 years old, a player almost nobody had in the field at the start of the week.

Alcaraz will face Casper Ruud in the semi-finals today, not before 17:00 Paris time. Ben Shelton faces Luca Van Assche in the other semi-final at 14:30. The final is on Sunday at 15:00 Paris time, and then the season moves to Turin, where the eight man field is now complete.

How did Alcaraz save the match?

Fritz had him. There is no other way to put it. Fritz won the first set tie-break 12-10, broke early in the second set, and served for the match at 5-4. Alcaraz saved a match point while serving at 3-5, and saved another with Fritz serving for the match at 5-4, the second with a forehand pass that turned the match around.

Alcaraz broke to level the set, held for 6-5, broke again to force a decider, and then won the third set 6-3. It was his eighth straight win, built on his Vienna title last week, and it was the first time he has gone beyond the quarter-finals in Paris, a tournament he had reached the last eight in 2022 and never gone further.

Fritz had played superbly for most of the night. He won the first set on his fourth set point, and he served with the confidence of a man who had beaten Arthur Fils 6-3, 6-4 on Thursday with 14 aces and no break point faced. But Alcaraz is a seven time Grand Slam champion for a reason, and when the match was on the line, he found the shots that Fritz could not.

The head to head now favours Alcaraz even more heavily, but the real story of the night is what it cost Fritz. He ends the race in 11th place on 3,050 points, and he will watch the ATP Finals from home.

Who is Rafael Jodar, and how did he get to Turin?

Jodar is 20 years old, and he is the last man into the eight player field for the ATP Finals in Turin, from 15 to 22 November. He did not play on Friday. He did not need to. Fritz's defeat, and Tommy Paul's defeat to Ben Shelton earlier in the day, did the job for him.

The maths was simple by Friday night. Two places were left, and four players were chasing them: Fritz, Paul, Frances Tiafoe and Jodar. Fritz needed to beat Alcaraz to keep his hopes alive. Paul needed to reach the final to qualify outright. Both lost, so Tiafoe qualified, and Jodar took the last place.

Jodar was beaten by Ruud in the second round in Paris, which makes his qualification even more unusual. He got to Turin without winning a match in the last qualifying event, because the two men ahead of him lost their quarter-finals on the same day.

He will make his debut at the season ending tournament, alongside Flavio Cobolli and Arthur Fils, who are also debutants. The full field is now confirmed, and it is a strong one.

The prize pool is $15.5 million, with an undefeated champion taking $5,071,000, a participation fee of $331,000, and $396,500 per round-robin win. For Fritz and Paul, Friday was not just about a semi-final in Paris. It was about a place in the richest event on the calendar, and the difference between qualifying and missing out is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars before a ball is hit in Turin.

Paul ends the race in 13th place. He lost to Shelton 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in the first quarter-final on Friday, in an all American match between two friends. Shelton won 20 of his 25 service points and struck eight aces in the deciding set, breaking Paul in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead and serving out the win.

What happened in the other quarter-finals?

Ruud beat Nuno Borges 7-6 (5), 6-4 in the last quarter-final of a late night in Paris. Borges, who entered the main draw as a lucky loser, had already made history as the first lucky loser to reach the quarter-finals in the history of the Paris Masters, and he had beaten Ruud in Basel last week. Ruud got his revenge, converting his only break point of the match, taking the first set tie-break 7-5 on his third set point, and serving out the second set to love at 5-4.

It is Ruud's 11th Masters 1000 semi-final, and he will be the underdog today. Alcaraz leads their head to head 6-1, and Ruud's only win came 6-1, 7-5 in the round robin of the 2024 ATP Finals. Alcaraz has also beaten Ruud in some of the biggest matches of his career, including the 2022 US Open final and the Miami final.

The other semi-final is a first meeting. Luca Van Assche, ranked 47th in the world, beat Rinky Hijikata 6-4, 6-7 (4), 7-5 in nearly three hours on Friday to reach his first Masters 1000 semi-final. Hijikata, the Australian qualifier ranked 83rd, had already beaten Novak Djokovic on Tuesday and Tomas Martin Etcheverry on Thursday, and his run from qualifying to the last eight was one of the stories of the week.

Van Assche had beaten Lorenzo Musetti on Thursday to reach his first Masters quarter-final, and he will have the Paris crowd behind him today against Shelton, the third seed, who is playing his first Paris semi-final as well.

When are the semi-finals today?

Both semi-finals are on Court Central at the Plenitude Arena in Nanterre, and the order of play gives fans a full afternoon and evening of tennis.

The doubles semi-finals are also on Centre Court today. Lucas Miedler and Neil Oberleitner, who have won 15 of their last 16 matches, face second seeds Neal Skupski and Christian Harrison, and French duo Quentin Halys and Pierre-Hugues Herbert face reigning champions and world No 1 pair Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten in the final match of the day.

In the UK, Sky Sports Tennis covers the tournament. In the United States, Tennis Channel carries it. The final is on Sunday 8 November at 15:00 Paris time, 14:00 London, 09:00 New York, 19:00 Karachi.

Why is Alcaraz v Ruud the match to watch?

Because it is a rematch of the 2022 US Open final, and because Alcaraz has never won in Paris before, and because Ruud is the one player in the draw who has beaten him in a big match recently, even if it was two years ago.

Alcaraz is the antepost favourite for the title, and he should win. But Friday night showed that he can be beaten, or at least pushed to the edge, and Ruud is a former world No 2 who has held every service game in his last match and who knows how to win a tie-break against this opponent.

The other semi-final is just as interesting, for a different reason. Shelton and Van Assche have never played each other, and neither has ever been this far in Paris. One of them will be in a Masters 1000 final on Sunday, and the crowd will be behind the Frenchman, who has already beaten two seeded players this week.

The draw has opened up so far that it is wrong to treat Alcaraz as the only winner. Zverev, Djokovic, Medvedev and Tiafoe all lost early. De Minaur is out. The semi-final line-up mixes established contenders with first time semi-finalists, and any of the four could win the title on Sunday.

Then comes Turin, and the real test. The eight man field is set, the prize money is the biggest on the calendar, and the season ends with the best players in the world in one room. Jodar, 20 years old, will be there because two men lost on the same Friday night in Paris. That is how fine the margins are at the top of this sport.

Related live posts: Alcaraz v Fritz Tonight for a Turin Place: Paris Quarter-Finals, Times and the Last Two Spots (https://www.ofthepitch.com/alcaraz-fritz-paris-quarter-finals-turin-race-friday-times), and Zverev Loses First Match as World No 1, Djokovic Season Ends in Paris: Wednesday Carnage and the Turin Field (https://www.ofthepitch.com/zverev-djokovic-out-paris-carnage-alcaraz-turin-race).

Sources: Associated Press via Tribune and Swadesi, Alcaraz reaches Paris Masters semis, 7 November 2026; AFP via Tribune, Alcaraz reaches Paris Masters semis, 7 November 2026; Field Level Media, Alcaraz rallies past Fritz in Paris, ATP Finals set, 7 November 2026; SportsBriefly, Alcaraz saves two match points to reach Paris semis, 7 November 2026; Rolex Paris Masters official site, Semi-finals: plenty to savour, 7 November 2026; Flashscore, Paris Masters live semi-final coverage, 7 November 2026.