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Cameron Norrie earned the biggest win of his career by rallying from a lost first set to overcome world No 1 Carlos Alcaraz in three hard-fought sets in the second round of the Paris Masters.

While he had previously beaten Alcaraz on two occasions, this triumph represents Norrie's first ever success over a reigning world top-ranked player.

"Huge. Incredibly significant for me," commented Norrie, who joins as the newest UK male player in the record books to overcome a global number one. "Returning from health issues last year, I fell in the initial match of qualifiers here. I just aimed to embrace my game in the second half of the year. To achieve a triumph like this, it's the biggest win of my tennis journey, my first win over the top player and arguably the strongest athlete in the tennis scene right now."

The British player, seeded 31st in the world, also ended Alcaraz's supreme streak of nine consecutive finals and 17 consecutive premier event victories, which represented the top run of outcomes in the young champion's early professional path.

Game Analysis

Alcaraz appeared to be moving confidently towards victory at the start as he eased through the opening set. However, the British contender gradually battled back back into the game by executing with greater precision and dragging the Spaniard into extended, physical points. His unceasing steadiness and reliability slowly left its mark.

For much of the contest, Alcaraz delivered strong serves but he had difficulty to locate his rhythm off his groundstrokes. The 22-year-old seemed especially uncomfortable hitting his forehand, which has been the best shot in the game for a large part of this season, committing 29 mistakes off the forehand side and a total of 54 mistakes. Opposing him, Norrie gave his opponent very few errors, maintaining his reliability, athleticism and power the entire contest while performing well on serve and picking his spots to advance into the court and strike effectively.

Final Moments

In the nail-biting final games, Norrie superbly kept his composure to close out the best player in the game.

Professional Journey

Following battling for a long time due to a significant left forearm injury and struggles with his performance, Norrie fell as low as No 91 this season. Following appearances in the advanced stages at Wimbledon and the Roland Garros round of 16 after that, this win further underlines the 30-year-old's improvement as he attempts to come back to the top 20 and even higher. Alcaraz, notwithstanding his extraordinary accomplishments, is still hasn't solve how to display his top form on indoor courts.