Stefanos Tsitsipas retires with injury at Paris Masters ahead of ATP Finals, Carlos Alcaraz beats Jannik Sinner
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Updated 03/11/2021 at 23:34 GMT
World No 3 Stefanos Tsitsipas had to retire after 28 minutes of his second-round match against Alexei Popyrin at the Paris Masters due to an arm injury. Tsitsipas plans to get treatment on the injury ahead of the season-ending ATP Finals. Carlos Alcaraz continued his strong form with a win over world No 9 Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev won.
Stefanos Tsitsipas
Image credit: Getty Images
Stefanos Tsitsipas is a doubt for the ATP Finals after retiring with a long-standing issue from his second-round match against Alexei Popyrin at the Paris Masters.
World No 3 Tsitsipas was down 4-2 in the first set when he retired for the first time in his career due to an arm injury.
Tsitsipas won the ATP Finals in 2019 but also had an injury scare ahead of his defence last year and was eliminated at the round-robin stage.
Speaking about his latest injury worry, he said: “I haven't retired once in my life, and it was something that I had to do today…I'm trying to be cautious for the next tournament, which is the most important one for me. I have had an issue there for quite a while now.
“It has gotten bigger in the past couple of weeks, so I'm just trying to protect it. I felt the pain playing in the match, and I just don't want for it to get worse than it is now. I know how to treat it, but playing every day, going out on the court practising doesn't make it better.
“It's not easy to just stop, especially when you have important tournaments like this one here that I really wanted to do well [in]. It hurts a lot not to be able to play at the level that I'm expected to play, and I'm expecting myself to play.
“I'm going to have treatment. I'm going to try and have the best people treat me and give me the best advice – anything possible to recover and be 100 per cent again.”
Tsitsipas has 55 wins on the ATP Tour this season and has also won titles in Monte Carlo and Acapulco, as well as reaching the final of the French Open.
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Highlights: Norrie eases past Opelka to reach third round in Paris
Medvedev, Zverev win, Alcaraz beats Sinner
World No 2 Daniil Medvedev, who has a faint hope of denying Novak Djokovic the year-end No 1 ranking, won his opening match in Paris 7-5 6-4 against Ilya Ivashka.
US Open champion Medvedev nearly squandered a strong early advantage as he let slip three set points and a 5-1 lead before eventually taking the first set.
"It doesn’t matter how you play in the first round, the one who raises his level throughout the tournament is the one who will win it," said Medvedev, who faces Sebastian Korda in the third round.
Last year's Paris Masters runner-up Alexander Zverev beat Dusan Lajovic 6-3 7-6(5) in one hour and 40 minutes.
Carlos Alcaraz claimed his third top-10 win of the year to dent Jannik Sinner’s chances of qualifying for the ATP Finals in Turin.
Alcaraz, who has previously beaten Tsitsipas and world No 7 Matteo Berrettini in 2021, came through 7-6(1) 7-5 against the new world No 9.
The result means that Hubert Hurkacz is now in the final automatic qualification spot for the Race to Turin. Hurkacz and Sinner are battling to clinch the remaining two qualifying spots along with Casper Ruud and Cameron Norrie.
"I'm so happy for this win as Jannik was fighting for a spot at the ATP Finals," said Alcaraz.
"It's my third top-10 win of the year. I think Jannik and I will have a great rivalry in the future."
Alcaraz, who reached the semi-finals at last week’s Vienna Open, will meet qualifier Hugo Gaston in the third round after he beat 12th seed Pablo Carreno Busta 6-7(3) 6-4 7-5.
Norrie recorded his 50th match win of the season as he beat Reilly Opelka 6-3 6-4 in 74 minutes.
The British No 1 will next face Taylor Fritz, who knocked out sixth seed Andrey Rublev.
“I really want to make the top eight and be playing, competing,” said Norrie. “There’s only two spots for basically the four of us, so I think it adds another element, and I really like that. Even to be in the conversation even this late in the year, means a lot to me and shows that I have made some improvements this year in my game.
“I want to play and I want to keep pushing and I want to give everything I've got and try and make that event.”
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