Roman Safiullin Stuns Carlos Alcaraz in Paris for the biggest win of his career 

Roman Safiullin stunned Carlos Alcaraz to achieve the biggest victory of his career thus far on Tuesday night at the Rolex Paris Masters.

The 26-year-old qualifier handed Alcaraz his first opening-round loss of 2023 after taking an early break in both sets of an unexpected 6-3, 6-4 triumph.

Following his victory, Roman Safiullin is now ranked No. 39 in the ATP Live Rankings, positioning himself to make his debut appearance in the Top 40.

The surprising victory over Alcaraz by the Russians comes after their recent breakout runs to the Chengdu final and the Wimbledon quarterfinals.

“Since qualifiers, I was not playing at this level but against Carlos and these Top 10, Top 20 guys, you have to lift up the level,” Safiullin said post-match. “I managed to do it.

“For Carlos, it was not his best performance, but still I’m happy that I can win… Even if he’s not in the best shape it’s tough to beat him. So I’m really happy that I made it.”

Alcaraz, who was forced to withdraw from Basel because of lower back and left foot issues, was participating for the first time since losing to Grigor Dimitrov in the Shanghai last 16 twenty days prior.

His hopes of topping the ATP Rankings for a second consecutive year were severely damaged by the loss; he is already 500 points behind world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the ATP Live Race To Turin, with the Serbian player scheduled to begin his Paris campaign on Wednesday.

Roman Safiullin has now reached the third round at four of the past five ATP Masters 1000s (also Madrid, Rome, Shanghai will next face Karen Khachanov for a place in the third round.