Rolex Paris Masters 2025: Cam Norrie loses out to Valentin Vacherot in third round
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British No.2 Cam Norrie bowed out in the third round of the Rolex Paris Masters – narrowly losing out to recent Rolex Shanghai Masters champion Valentin Vacherot.
Vacherot defeated Norrie 7-6(4), 6-4 in an hour and 36 minutes to punch his ticket into the quarter-final and extend his winning run at ATP Masters 1000 events to 10 matches.
Norrie had been looking to back up his victory over world No.1 Carlos Alcaraz on Tuesday – becoming the first British player to beat the top-ranked player in the world since 2021 (Dan Evans vs Novak Djokovic, Monte-Carlo).
The Briton is currently up to world No.27 in the live ATP rankings after his victories in Paris this week.
It was a grueling third round contest on the slow indoor hard courts of Paris, with many long physical exchanges between the two players.
Norrie missed out on the only break point opportunity of the first set, as the Shanghai Masters champion showed his quality on serve throughout the match. Vacherot won 86%(44/51) points on first serve across an impressive all-round performance.
The Monegasque is playing the tennis of his life at the moment and had the upper hand on Norrie in the big points. Leading 5-4 in the tie-break, he sealed a double break to close out the set.
The 30-year-old Brit had chances again in the second set, but Vacherot saw off break points at 2-1 down and then again leading 4-3.
The world No.40 comfortably served out the victory at the first time of asking to book a quarter-final spot against either Felix Auger-Aliassime or Daniel Altmaier.
