Causing upsets is one thing, meeting expectations quite another. It is a lesson Carlos Alcaraz learned the hard way in the last 16 of the Paris Masters. Having beaten Jannik Sinner in the previous round to claim his third victory over a top-10 player in two months, Alcaraz took to the court against home favourite Hugo Gaston, the world No 103, as the obvious favourite. But as the Spanish teenager discovered, it is easier to be the hunter than the prey.
Parisians have a way of getting behind their own, and in the day’s final match the well-oiled Court Central patrons were in raucous mood from the moment the outset. As they chanted Gaston’s name with deafening enthusiasm, greeting the French qualifier’s every success with boisterous acclaim, Alcaraz could have been forgiven for wondering what exactly he had got himself into. The 18-year-old came for a tennis match; he left a broken and sorry figure, thrown to the lions by an inspired performance from Gaston and the rowdy interjections of a crowd that, by the latter stages of his 6-4, 7-5 defeat, cheered his every mistake mercilessly and at length.
Gaston has form for an upset, having beaten former Stan Wawrinka at Roland Garros two years ago as a wild card before losing a dramatic five-setter to Dominic Thiem. Yet it was the manner of the 21-year-old’s victory that so startled. Having saved match points against Kevin Anderson in qualifying and fought back from a set down to beat 12th seed Pablo Carreño Busta in the previous round, Gaston has clearly acquired a taste for escapology.
He was quickly at it again here, twice recovering from a break down in the first set only to find himself 0-5 down in the second as Alcaraz, switching his service patterns and settling into a steadier rhythm from the baseline, finally began to find answers to the French southpaw’s idiosyncratic style. At this stage, most players would have been turning their thoughts to the seemingly inevitable decider. Gaston, with his bewitching array of drop shots, lobs and early-taken returns, is not most players.
Drawing Alcaraz around the court with a vision and touch that left the Spaniard increasingly nonplussed and the crowd ever more euphoric, Gasquet rattled off a remarkable 17 points in succession to wipe out the Spaniard’s advantage and set the stage for a remarkable victory. Alcaraz, it should be said, contributed to his downfall, committing a dozen unforced errors as the combined effects of the partisan atmosphere and his opponent’s audacious shot-making proved impossible to resist, but it was a turnaround that will live long in the memory.
“It’s quite surprising,” said Gaston, who will play Daniil Medvedev in the last eight, with some understatement. “It was five love for him during the second. I was drifting off at that point, and he started to have a letdown as well. He made a lot of mistakes, because I managed to have fast balls, slow balls, to have high balls. He started to lose his groove, and I stayed focused. This is why I managed to overturn the match in my favour.”
The Frenchman, who said facing Medvedev would be “a moment of genuine happiness”, had warm words for the crowd. “It was incredible,” he added. “Honestly, I have been playing tennis for this. It was really wonderful to live this match with them.”