Possible rematch between Alcaraz and Gaston in the NextGen Finals

The morbid is served after the round of 16 match of the 1,000 Masters in Paris that faced Carlos Alcaraz and Hugo Gastón, and in which French raised a 4-2 in the first set and a 5-0 in the second to take the victory, cheered by the excessively hot French public. And it is that both players could meet again next week at the NextGen ATP Finals in Milan (November 9 to 13), the U21 Masters whose final list of eight participants was known this Friday. The 18-year-old from Murcia appears as the first seed, due to the resignations of the first two of the race, Jannik Sinner and Felix Auger-Aliassime. And there is also the 20-year-old Frenchman, thanks to a third loss, that of American Jenson Brooksby.

The rest of the participants are, in the order that appears in the race and that closed on Monday, Sebastian Korda (USA), Lorenzo Musetti (Italy), Brandon Nakashima (USA), Juan Manuel Cerúndolo (Argentina) and Holger Vitus Nodskov Rune (Denmark).

The competition system, with a round robin phase, semifinals and final, stipulates that the first two seeds do not meet in the first phase. But the rest can fall into either of the two groups, A or B, so Alcaraz and Gastón could meet in the first phase or if not, if they both pass, at the crossroads. The action starts on Tuesday. Carlos is the third Spaniard to compete in this Junior Masters after Jaume Munar, semifinalist in 2018 (he was beaten by Alex de Miñaur in the semifinals and Andrey Rublev in the duel for third place), and Alejandro Davidovich, who could not pass the group stage in 2019. Last year the tournament was not held due to the pandemic.