Carlos Alcaraz beats Ben Shelton to win Paris Masters for the first time

Carlos Alcaraz broke his Paris Masters hoodoo on Sunday, winning the tournament for the first time by beating Ben Shelton 7-6 (5), 7-5 to become only the second Spaniard to lift the trophy, after David Ferrer in 2012.

After wins in Tokyo and Vienna, he sealed his fifth title of the season and his third since returning from a wrist injury with a passing shot on his second match point.

Shelton, who beat him at the US Open two months ago, held serve for more than an hour and a half. He saved every break point in the first set until a wayward forehand cost him the tie-break.

The American then led 4-2 in the second set, but Alcaraz broke twice in 20 minutes to close out the match.

Paris had previously been a difficult venue for him, with left-handers Hugo Gaston, Ugo Humbert and Cameron Norrie all knocking him out there.

"It’s something I’ve been after for a long time. I suffered one of the toughest defeats of my career here," Alcaraz said, recalling his defeat by Gaston.

Alcaraz now has 29 career titles, nine of them Masters 1000s. If he wins in Canada and Shanghai, he will become the third player to win all nine events, after Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner.

Ahead of the ATP Finals in Turin, the win also cuts the gap to Sinner and Alexander Zverev, who lead him by 2,340 and 2,410 points, respectively.

Because his wrist injury ruled him out for four months after Barcelona last spring, including Roland Garros and Wimbledon, he has no ranking points to defend over that period. That leaves him well placed to reclaim the world number one spot next season.