"Will he be hungry enough to go for titles he hasn’t yet won?" Carlos Alcaraz indoor hardcourt form scrutinised after 'listless' showing in Paris Masters

It was a shock early round exit for Carlos Alcaraz in the Paris Masters. While we are used to seeing Alcaraz exit the indoor event in the French capital early, it does go against the trend of him challenging deep into big tournaments, with former Grand Slam semi-finalist Nicolas Escude questioning the Spaniard's hunger for titles at the end of the year.

His indoor form was taken into question once again by his very high standards after Cameron Norrie came back from a set down to dump out the world number one in the second-round, proving to be a seismic shock in the tennis world. Alcaraz had previously been unstoppable on court, having lost just two singles matches since his disappointing defeat in the Wimbledon final. Both of these came indoors, with Fritz getting a maiden win over the 22-year-old in the Laver Cup, before Sinner extracted his revenge in the Six Kings Slam.

The Frenchman described the display by Alcaraz as 'listless', meaning that he looked like he lacks any motivation or energy. While it has been a long season for Alcaraz, this is his first tournament since competing in Riyadh 10 days ago. You would think this would give him the time to recover from his previous travels ahead of a hugely important end to 2025, but Escude does not believe that.

“We saw a borderline listless Alcaraz, complaining about the sensations he was having, exchanging long exchanges with his team members after losing the second set,” Escude said when speaking to Eurosport France after the match. "He went against everything he’s been doing for the past few months. It’s surprising. But for the moment, his relationship with this tournament is complicated. Without taking credit away from Norrie, who played his match. He didn’t give much. He was a little shaky on his penultimate service game, but he finished very well.”

Form most people, a 70% win-rate on a specific surface would be looked at with gleaming eyes. For Alcaraz, it is gazed at with concern. While he has portrayed his dominance in practically every other setting, indoor hardcourt is not for his liking. This is despite him winning the title in Rotterdam earlier this year, the first of an incredible eight titles won so far in 2025.

The Paris Masters has never been happy hunting ground for Alcaraz, who has recorded just one quarter-final in the event back in 2022. Since then, he has mustered up just one victory, his worst record in any Masters 1000 event. You could also question his performances in the Tour Finals. In his two appearances, he reached the semi-finals in 2023 and failed to make it out of the group in 2024. The Spaniard came top of his group in 2023 but was battered by eventual champion Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals. A year later, he could only come up with one solitary win against Andrey Rublev, surviving points from Rublev that would take the match to a deciding set. He would come out second best against Casper Ruud and Alexander Zverev, unable to even clinch a set.

“I wouldn’t say he had a mental block about indoors. I don’t believe that. His game adapts perfectly to these conditions, especially since it’s a bit slower than the indoor courts of the past," Escude said before Alcaraz's Paris campaign. "If he stabilises things a bit more, as he showed in New York over two weeks, indoors won’t be a problem for him anymore. He’s the only one who has everything he needs to perform equally well on all surfaces. The question is, ‘How much does he want this end of the season?’ He’s almost guaranteed to finish number one. Will he be hungry enough to go for titles he hasn’t yet won?"