Carlos Alcaraz suffers epic meltdown in Paris Masters against Gaston

Carlos Alcaraz throws away a 4-2 lead in the first and a 5-0 lead in the second set against Hugo Gaston in Paris to crash out out of the Paris Masters.

The final tennis match of Thursday at the Paris Masters featured two next-gen players that will be prominently featured on the tour for years to come. Carlos Alcaraz faced off against native Hugo Gaston with a fierce French crowd behind their player supporting. The atmosphere was electric and the match was great.

It started off well for Alcaraz who was playing his signature aggressive style attacking Gaston at every opportunity he had. The Spanish player found early success taking a 3-1 lead but the Frenchman was not ready to give up. Playing very inspired tennis, Gaston was able to pull back the lead and make it 4-4. He then went on another run to close out the first set with 6-4.

Alcaraz did not have his best stuff today as the Spanish player made a lot of mistakes, especially from his forehand and that proved his undoing. He had a 4-2 lead in the first set but lost it 4-6. In the 2nd set, he finally found a bit of rhythm jumping out to an early lead. Gaston did not know how to respond and he quickly found himself down 5-0.

After that something very strange happened. Alcaraz became increasingly nervous after dropping his serve when he served for the set. He still had one break in hand but his play deteriorated very quickly. Gaston was able to pull back the 2nd break and then add another one to take a 6-5 lead. He closed it out with an ace on match point 7-5. A brutal match for Alcaraz who will learn a lot from it.