Carlos Alcaraz (Twitter)
World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz will square off against world No. 38 Yoshihito Nishioka in the round of 32 of the Paris Masters on Wednesday.
The sensational Spaniard has been on fire this season. He won the Master 1000 events in Miami in Madrid but his biggest triumph came at the US Open. The 19-year-old defeated Casper Ruud in the final to bag his first major title. Alcaraz most recently played in the Basel Open. He came up victorious against Jack Draper, Botic van de Zandschulp, and Pablo Carreno Busta before going down to an in-form Felix Auger-Aliassime in the semis.
Last year at the Paris Masters, Alcaraz defeated Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Jannik Sinner to reach the round of 16 where his run was ended by Hugo Gaston in straight sets. It goes without saying that Alcaraz has grown leaps and bounds in the last 12 months.
The Japanese No. 1 will have his task cut out when he faces Alcaraz. Nishioka won a Challenger event in Columbus. However, his best result this season came in the Korea Open. He defeated Denis Shapovalov in straight sets in the final to win the title. Other than that, Nishioka reached the finals of the Citi Open in Washington, where he went down to a rampaging Nick Kyrgios.
The 27-year-old comes into the tournament on the back of a disappointing Vienna Open campaign. He won a couple of qualifying matches to make it to the main draw. However, his run ended in the first round following a loss against fourth seed Taylor Fritz.
The head-to-head scoreline currently stands at 0-0 as the two players have not faced each other as yet.
Prediction: Carlos Alcaraz to win in straight sets.
More Tennis news
Follow our dedicated Tennis page for instant Tennis news and updates