Paris Masters 2026 Preview: Draw, Schedule, Top Players, Prize Money and Predictions
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One final Masters 1000.
No defending champion Jannik Sinner.
A brand-new world No. 1 in Alexander Zverev.
Novak Djokovic chasing an eighth Paris title, and a ticket to Turin.
And several players are still fighting for a place at the ATP Finals.
The Rolex Paris Masters 2026 arrives at exactly the right time. Qualifying starts on Saturday, October 31, and the main draw runs from Monday, November 2 to Sunday, November 8 at the Plenitude Arena (formerly Paris La Défense Arena) in Nanterre, just west of central Paris.
It is the ninth and final ATP Masters 1000 of the season and the 40th edition of the tournament. The champion collects 1,000 ranking points, and for several players this is the last real chance to qualify for Turin.
With Sinner out, the Paris Masters 2026 title race looks unusually open.
Paris Masters 2026 at a glance
• Tournament: Rolex Paris Masters 2026 (40th edition)
• Category: ATP Masters 1000 (ninth and final of 2026)
• Surface: Indoor hard court
• Venue: Plenitude Arena, Nanterre (renamed from Paris La Défense Arena on July 1, 2026)
• Qualifying: Saturday, October 31 to Sunday, November 1
• Main draw: Monday, November 2 to Sunday, November 8
• Draw ceremony: Friday, October 30, 7:00 PM Paris time (11:30 PM IST)
• Singles draw: 56 players, 16 seeds; the top eight seeds get first-round byes
• Final: Sunday, November 8, not before 3:00 PM Paris time (7:30 PM IST)
• Total prize money: €6,309,095
• Champion’s reward: €974,370 and 1,000 ATP ranking points
• Defending champion: Jannik Sinner (not playing; his 2026 season is over)
• Most titles: Novak Djokovic, 7
Paris Masters 2026 draw: when is it, and who are the seeds?
The official Paris Masters 2026 draw takes place on Friday, October 30 at 7:00 PM Paris time (11:30 PM IST). At the time of writing, the bracket has not yet been released.
Seedings are based on the ATP rankings of October 26. With world No. 1 Sinner withdrawn, everyone moves up a place. These are the projected seeds:
1. Alexander Zverev (GER) – first-round bye
2. Carlos Alcaraz (ESP) – first-round bye
3. Ben Shelton (USA) – first-round bye
4. Daniil Medvedev – first-round bye
5. Flavio Cobolli (ITA) – first-round bye
6. Felix Auger-Aliassime (CAN) – first-round bye
7. Arthur Fils (FRA) – first-round bye
8. Frances Tiafoe (USA) – first-round bye
9. Alex de Minaur (AUS)
10. Rafael Jódar (ESP)
11. Novak Djokovic (SRB)
12. Taylor Fritz (USA)
13. Tommy Paul (USA)
14. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (ESP)
15. Jakub Menšík (CZE)
16. Brandon Nakashima (USA)
Two things stand out. Zverev and Alcaraz can only meet in the final. And Djokovic is not a top-eight seed this year, so he gets no bye. Seeds 9 to 12 are drawn against seeds 5 to 8 in the Round of 16, so Djokovic could face a top-eight seed in his third match and a top-four seed in the quarter-finals.
There will be dangerous players everywhere. Unseeded names such as Jiří Lehečka, Karen Khachanov, Casper Ruud and Lorenzo Musetti could meet a top seed as early as the second round.
Alexander Zverev could hardly arrive in Paris with a bigger storyline.His 6-4, 7-5 win over Tallon Griekspoor in Vienna on Thursday confirmed that he will officially become world No. 1 for the first time when the ATP rankings update on Monday, November 2. He is the 30th man to reach the top spot, and only the second German after Boris Becker. He had already wrapped up the year-end No. 1 ranking.It has been the season of his life. Zverev won his first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros, beating Flavio Cobolli in five sets, then added the US Open by beating Ben Shelton in the final. His only major final defeat of the year came against Sinner at Wimbledon.He is also a former Paris Masters champion, having beaten Ugo Humbert 6-2, 6-2 in the 2024 final.The Vienna win improved his 2026 record to 64-16 and sent him into a Tour-leading 13th quarter-final of the season, against Arthur Fery.Indoor hard courts suit him. The serve is huge. The backhand is one of the best in tennis. And when he is confident, the shorter rallies of indoor tennis make him particularly difficult to break down.Right now, Zverev deserves to start as our Paris Masters 2026 favourite.Alexander Zverev: the new world No. 1 and the man to beat
Can Carlos Alcaraz finally crack Paris?
There is a strange gap in Carlos Alcaraz’s Masters record.
For all he has achieved, including seven Grand Slam titles, he has never reached the semi-finals of the Paris Masters. His best result remains a quarter-final in 2022. That gives him something to fix.
His 2026 has also been disrupted. A right wrist injury kept him out for around five months, including Rome and Roland Garros. Since returning, he lost a five-set US Open quarter-final to Ben Shelton and won the title in Tokyo.
He does arrive with match practice. Alcaraz reached the Vienna quarter-finals on Thursday by beating Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-1, 7-6(11), saving four set points in a 13-11 tie-break. It was his 23rd straight win at ATP 500 level, and he faces Tommy Paul next.
The question with Alcaraz indoors is rarely whether he has enough weapons. He clearly does. The issue is whether he can impose his variety quickly enough against elite servers on a fast indoor court.
If he does, he is an obvious title contender, and bookmakers have him alongside Zverev at the top of the Paris Masters 2026 odds.
Novak Djokovic and Paris: never ignore the history
Seven titles.
That number alone explains why Novak Djokovic belongs in this conversation. No player has won the Paris Masters more often. He also holds the records for most match wins at the event (50) and is its oldest champion, having won in 2023 at 36.
This year, Paris has consequences beyond another trophy. The 39-year-old is 11th in the Race to Turin, 319 points behind Rafael Jódar. Because Sinner has withdrawn, ninth place is enough to qualify, so Paris is Djokovic’s last chance to close that gap.
But there is a warning sign. Djokovic lost to 36-year-old German Jan-Lennard Struff 6-7(4), 7-5, 7-6(5) in Basel on Thursday. Struff had lost all eight of their previous meetings, but hit 27 aces and saved all six break points he faced.
Does one defeat make a seven-time champion irrelevant? Obviously not.
But Djokovic has a harder route this year. As a projected 11th seed with no bye, he needs to win three matches just to reach the quarter-finals, and his third could be against a top-eight seed.
If the draw puts him near Zverev or Alcaraz, things could get interesting very quickly.
Daniil Medvedev: the dangerous outsider
If you are looking beyond the two leading seeds, Daniil Medvedev deserves serious attention.
Medvedev won Paris in 2020, beating Zverev in the final. More importantly, he is finding form at exactly the right time.
Last week he successfully defended his Almaty title, the first title defence of his career and his fourth trophy of 2026. He then reached his 100th tour-level quarter-final in Vienna, recovering from 3-5 down in the deciding set to beat Cameron Norrie 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(1).
That victory extended his winning streak to six matches. He also leads the Tour with 38 hard-court wins this season, and sits fifth in the Race to Turin.
Medvedev is at his best when rallies become awkward. He absorbs pace, returns from strange positions and forces opponents to hit another ball when they thought the point was already over. That style can frustrate almost anyone indoors.
He is our dark horse.
Other Paris Masters 2026 players to watch
• Ben Shelton has already qualified for Turin and reached the US Open final, and his serve makes him dangerous indoors. His form since New York has been patchy, including an early Basel loss to Jérôme Kym.
• Felix Auger-Aliassime reached last year’s Paris final before losing to Sinner.
• Flavio Cobolli is having the best season of his career, including a first Grand Slam final at Roland Garros, and sits sixth in the Race to Turin.
• Alex de Minaur has the speed and consistency to punish anyone whose level drops, and needs a big week to reach Turin.
• Rafael Jódar and Frances Tiafoe arrive holding qualification places they must protect.
French hopes at the Paris Masters 2026
The home crowd will have plenty to cheer. Arthur Fils leads the French challenge and is seventh in the Race to Turin, so he could book his ATP Finals place in front of his own fans. Ugo Humbert, the 2024 runner-up, Arthur Rinderknech and Luca Van Assche are also in the draw.
The main-draw wild cards have gone to four Frenchmen: Titouan Droguet, Arthur Géa, Quentin Halys and Kyrian Jacquet.
France has produced only three home singles champions at this tournament: Guy Forget in 1991, Sébastien Grosjean in 2001 and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in 2008. A fourth would be some way to mark the tournament’s 40th edition.
Why is Jannik Sinner not playing the Paris Masters 2026?
The defending champion is the biggest name missing.
Sinner has not played since winning Wimbledon in July, where he beat Zverev in the final. On October 6 he announced that his 2026 season is over so he can undergo treatment on his right knee.
That means he cannot defend his Paris Masters title, or his ATP Finals crown in Turin, which he won in both 2024 and 2025.
Sinner won Paris for the first time last year, beating Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-4, 7-6(4) in the final. His absence also opened the door for Zverev to take over at world No. 1.
There is no defending champion waiting at the top of the draw. Whoever lifts the trophy on November 8, it will not be the man who won it last year.
Paris Masters 2026 prize money and the race to Turin
Total prize money for the Paris Masters 2026 is €6,309,095, with €974,370 for the singles champion.
• Champion: €974,370 and 1,000 points
• Runner-up: €532,120 and 650 points
• Semi-finals: €290,960 and 400 points
• Quarter-finals: €158,700 and 200 points
• Round of 16: €84,890 and 100 points
• Second round: €45,520 and 50 points
• First round: €25,220 and 10 points
For some players, the points matter even more than the money. Paris is the last tournament that counts for the ATP Finals 2026, which run from November 15 to 22 in Turin.
Zverev, Alcaraz and Shelton have already qualified. Because Sinner has withdrawn, the top nine in the race take the eight places. Going into Paris, Medvedev, Cobolli, Fils, Tiafoe and Jódar hold the remaining spots, with de Minaur and Djokovic the closest challengers. Only about 500 points separate fifth place from ninth, so one deep run in Paris could change everything.
Paris Masters 2026 schedule (Paris time and IST)
Play starts at 11:00 AM Paris time (3:30 PM IST) on most days, and the Paris Masters 2026 final is on Sunday, November 8, not before 3:00 PM Paris time (7:30 PM IST). The order of play for each day is released the evening before.
• Saturday, October 31 to Sunday, November 1 – Qualifying: 11:00 AM Paris / 3:30 PM IST
• Monday, November 2 to Wednesday, November 4 – First and second rounds: 11:00 AM Paris / 3:30 PM IST
• Thursday, November 5 – Round of 16: 11:00 AM Paris / 3:30 PM IST
• Friday, November 6 – Quarter-finals: 12:00 PM Paris / 4:30 PM IST
• Saturday, November 7 – Semi-finals: 11:30 AM Paris / 4:00 PM IST
• Sunday, November 8 – Doubles final: 12:30 PM Paris / 5:00 PM IST
• Sunday, November 8 – Singles final: Not before 3:00 PM Paris / 7:30 PM IST
How to watch the Paris Masters 2026: TV and live streaming
In India, FanCode carries ATP Tour live streaming. Broadcast rights vary by country:
• India: FanCode
• United Kingdom: Sky Sports Tennis and NOW
• United States: Tennis Channel
• France: Eurosport; france.tv shows one featured match a day, and the final is live on France 3
• Other territories: Tennis TV, subject to local broadcast restrictions
Paris Masters 2026 prediction: who will win?
Before seeing the draw, our pick is Alexander Zverev.
It is difficult to argue against the combination. He becomes world No. 1 on Monday. He has won two Grand Slams this year. He has already won this tournament. And his serve and backhand are built for indoor hard courts.
Alcaraz is the biggest threat. Djokovic’s Paris record means writing him off would be foolish. And Medvedev looks more dangerous with every match as his confidence returns.
TalkingBets prediction
• Favourite: Alexander Zverev
• Biggest threat: Carlos Alcaraz
• Never count him out: Novak Djokovic
• Dark horse: Daniil Medvedev
The draw could change everything. That is exactly why Paris should be fascinating.
One week. One final Masters 1000. And plenty still to decide before the 2026 season reaches Turin.
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Paris Masters 2026: frequently asked questions
When is the Paris Masters 2026?
Qualifying is on October 31 and November 1. The main draw runs from November 2 to November 8, 2026.
Where is the Paris Masters 2026 played?
At the Plenitude Arena (formerly Paris La Défense Arena) in Nanterre, just west of Paris, on an indoor hard court.
What time is the Paris Masters 2026 draw in India?
The draw is on Friday, October 30 at 7:00 PM Paris time, which is 11:30 PM IST.
Is Jannik Sinner playing the Paris Masters 2026?
No. The defending champion ended his 2026 season on October 6 to treat a right knee injury.
What is the Paris Masters 2026 prize money?
The total is €6,309,095. The singles champion earns €974,370 and 1,000 ranking points.
How can I watch the Paris Masters 2026 in India?
FanCode streams ATP Tour events in India.
What time is the Paris Masters 2026 final in IST?
The singles final is on Sunday, November 8, not before 3:00 PM Paris time, or 7:30 PM IST.
Who has won the Paris Masters the most times?
Novak Djokovic, with seven titles.
