Preview: Paris Masters: Carlos Alcaraz vs. Cameron Norrie - prediction, head-to-head, tournament so far

Cameron Norrie's reward for an opening win at the Paris Masters is a date with the best player on the planet, as the former British number one squares up to Carlos Alcaraz in Tuesday's second-round match.

Norrie sunk Sebastian Baez in straight sets to set up a showdown with the top seed, who is playing his first match since winning his 24th career title.

Match preview

Yet another shot at hard-court dominance awaits world number one Alcaraz, who enters his fifth Paris Masters campaign with some wrongs to right from previous years, having never made it beyond the quarter-finals of the ATP 1000 tournament previously.

The Spaniard's best run at the competition so far came in the 2022 edition, where he fell to eventual winner Holger Rune in the last eight, but he was stunned by qualifier Roman Safiullin in the 2023 second round before a third-round elimination at the hands of Ugo Humbert last year.

However, Alcaraz arrived in the French capital with a trio of Masters triumphs under his belt already in 2025 - conquering Monte-Carlo, Rome and Cincinnati - although he opted against a shot at Shanghai Open glory, pulling out of the most recent ATP 1000 tournament.

Alcaraz's withdrawal came after he defied an ankle injury at the Tokyo Open, where his team were seemingly pleading with him to retire from his opening contest with Baez, but those calls fell on deaf ears as the 22-year-old remarkably clinched the trophy.

Even a less-than-100% Alcaraz needed just two sets to overcome Taylor Fritz in the final, and having now had ample time to rest and recuperate from his physical issues, he is arguably a more dangerous proposition than ever.

The unfancied Norrie is not a novice when it comes to defeating the world number one - he took down Alcaraz at Cincinnati 2022 and the 2023 Rio final - but the Briton's powers have waned since his high-profile successes a few years ago.

The 2021 Indian Wells title and 2022 Wimbledon semi-finals now appear a distant memory for Norrie, although the 30-year-old is ending 2025 as he means to begin 2026 and is now on the brink of re-entering the top 30 of the ATP Rankings for the first time since May 2024.

The world number 31 - who was down at 91st as recently as this May - recently made quite the statement in Vienna by eliminating Andrey Rublev first up, before an epic three-set defeat to Matteo Berrettini in the second round.

Fast-forward to Paris, and Norrie has reached the second round for just the third time in his career thanks to a 6-3 6-4 victory over Baez, who took just two of his seven break points while the Briton converted four of his six such chances.

Reaching the last 32 is already a marked improvement on his 2024 run - which ended extremely prematurely in the first round of qualifying - and Norrie will meet Arthur Rinderknech, Jiri Lehecka or Shanghai champion Valentin Vacherot if a Masters giant killing materialises on Tuesday.

Tournament so far

Carlos Alcaraz:

First round: Bye

Cameron Norrie:

First round: vs. Sebastian Baez 6-3 6-4

Head To Head

Wimbledon (2025) - Quarter-final: Alcaraz wins 6-2 6-3 6-3

Rio Open (2023) - Final: Norrie wins 5-7 6-4 7-5

Buenos Aires (2023) - Final: Alcaraz wins 6-3 7-5

Cincinnati Open (2022) - Quarter-final: Norrie wins 7-6[4] 6-7[4] 6-4

Madrid Open (2022) - Last 16: Alcaraz wins 6-4 6-7[4] 6-3

Indian Wells Masters (2022) - Quarter-final: Alcaraz wins 6-4 6-3

US Open (2021) - First round: Alcaraz wins 6-4 6-4 6-3

Alcaraz and Norrie's second-round Paris Masters match will mark their eighth meeting on the ATP Tour, and the Spaniard has unsurprisingly built up a dominant streak over the Briton with five victories to two.

The pair are reuniting just a few months on from Alcaraz's routine quarter-final win on the lawns of Wimbledon, although Norrie did prevail in their most recent hard-court contest in Cincinnati three years ago.

That battle also represents their most recent head-to-head in an ATP 1000 setting, although the other two Masters meetings - both in 2022 in Madrid and Indian Wells - were won by the world number one.

We say: Alcaraz to win in two sets

Norrie is slowly but surely creeping up the rankings again, but the Briton has only ever won 11 of his 53 matches against top-10 players and has just one such victory under his belt since the start of 2024.

Alcaraz may be lacking match practice these last few weeks, but an extended break has likely done him the world of good, and we can only see the top seed overwhelming his experienced foe en route to round three.