World number one Carlos Alcaraz said he had "no feeling at all" for the ball after he was beaten 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in his opening match at the Paris Masters on Tuesday by 31st-ranked Briton Cameron Norrie.
The six-time Grand Slam champion has failed to win the Paris Masters in five attempts and now faces losing his place atop the rankings should rival Jannik Sinner win the tournament.
After three weeks out of official competition due to an ankle injury which forced him to skip the Shanghai Masters, Alcaraz said he had come into the event in Paris in fine fettle.
"I had a lot of practices here, which I was feeling great, feeling amazing, moving on the court, hitting the ball," the 22-year-old said.
"But today, even in the first set, that I won, I just felt like I could do much more than what I did. I tried in the second set just to be better, but it was totally the opposite. I just felt even worse."
Just like during his Roland Garros success earlier in the season, Alcaraz hit a serious mid-match slump, but on this occasion he was unable to dig himself out of a hole in the French capital.
"I didn't feel well today. A lot of mistakes... I had no feeling at all," he summarised.
"I'm really disappointed about my level today, and it is what it is."
The Spaniard, however, did praise his opponent for capitalising on his mistakes.
"I have to give credit to Cam, as well, because I think he didn't let me stay or come back to the match," Alcaraz said. "Norrie played really great tennis."
The mercurial Norrie rose to the occasion on the 17,500-capacity centre court at the La Defense Arena.
"Such a special win to beat probably the most confident player in the world right now," former world number eight Norrie said.
"I told myself before the match, even if I get in a winning scenario, I'm not going to be afraid to win. I stayed true to that."
Norrie's shot-making drew repeated admiring gasps from the crowd across the match, and he even had a stranded Alcaraz staring at him in admiration on two occasions during the opening exchanges following a superb passing shot at full stretch and a perfectly-placed lob executed while sprinting towards his own baseline.
- Memories of Rio -
As Alcaraz's first serve and backhand deserted him, Norrie kept his composure to break at 3-3 in the decider and then bring up two match points.
The first saw a Norrie backhand bobble twice on the net-cord before agonisingly falling on the wrong side of the court for the Briton.
Norrie revealed he swiftly put any thoughts of Alcaraz pulling off an escape act similar to his one in the French Open final against Sinner in June when he saved championship points to claim a miraculous victory.
"I remember when I played him in Rio (in 2023), and I was 40-30 serving for the match, I remember I hit the T and I said, 'Okay, I'm going to go T again'," he recounted.
"I managed to hit the spot and he missed the return. It was a nice moment."
US fourth seed Taylor Fritz safely navigated his way through to the third round with a 7-6 (7/4), 6-2 win over Australian qualifier Aleksandar Vukic.
Earlier, Russia's Daniil Medvedev, the 2020 Paris Masters champion, breezed to a comfortable 6-1, 6-3 win over Spaniard Jaume Munar. The eleventh seed will face Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in the second round.
Fresh off winning the biggest title of his career in Basel last weekend, 19-year-old Brazilian Joao Fonseca dug deep to beat Canada's Denis Shapovalov in three sets.
Canadian ninth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime earned a comeback 6-7 (2/7), 6-3, 6-3 victory over Argentinian Francisco Comesana, while US fifth seed Ben Shelton beat Italy's Flavio Cobolli in straight sets.
Shock Shanghai Masters winner Valentin Vacherot continued his remarkable form in the opening match of the day.
The Monegasque wildcard beat Czech 14th seed Jiri Lehecka 6-1, 6-3, and will next meet his cousin Arthur Rinderknech in a repeat of the Shanghai final earlier in October.
The winner of the all-family affair will take on Norrie in the third round.
Italian world number two Sinner will get his tournament underway on Wednesday against Belgium's Zizou Bergs.
nf/lp
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