Chris Eubanks responds when asked if Carlos Alcaraz is back to his best

Is Carlos Alcaraz the best player on the ATP Tour right now?

With Jannik Sinner injured and Alexander Zverev struggling to locate his best form, that argument can certainly be made.

The Spaniard owns a 17-2 ATP record since returning from long-term injury at the end of August; only losing to Ben Shelton in the US Open quarter-finals and to Zizou Bergs in the Shanghai Masters second round.

Alcaraz’s record prompts a pertinent question: Has the 23-year-old already returned to the best version of himself on the tennis court?

Chris Eubanks has attempted to answer that query.

Chris Eubanks believes Carlos Alcaraz is not back to his best

“I don’t know if I’d say his best. But I think he is certainly a lot, a lot better than, at various stages, what we saw in New York, and that’s to be expected,” Eubanks, a former Wimbledon quarter-finalist, said on The Big T Podcast.

“I mean, you’re out for that long. You come back into a best of five set grand slam. Like, yeah, there’s gonna be some rust. And I think the more that he plays, even at Laver Cup, he looked really good, but the more that he plays, the more he’s gonna start to find his form.

“I think this, and Turin next week, will be prime opportunities for him to kind of really, you know, end his year on a really high note, not just by the results, but just by a level standpoint, and being able to go into the off season fresh, and hopefully 100 per cent going into Australia, but I think he’s playing very close to top tier.

“There were some moments in that De Minaur final that I was like, yep, this looks like the same guy. But I still want to see how this goes here [in Paris] as he’s looking to prime and peak in Turin. This is certainly going to be somewhere he wants to kind of avenge that early loss last year to Cameron Norrie.”

“So I think I want to see a little bit more from him. We’ve seen some ridiculously high moments from Carlos. I don’t think he’s there just yet, but at this rate, it’s only a matter of time.”

Alcaraz moved through to the Paris Masters quarter-finals for only the second time in his career following Matteo Berrettini’s injury-induced withdrawal on Thursday.

Carlos Alcaraz’s tournament results since returning from injury

• US Open: reached the quarter-finals before losing to Ben Shelton in five sets, 7-6, 1-6, 3-6, 6-1, 6-7
• Laver Cup: won two matches [singles and doubles] as Team Europe secured victory
• Japan Open: won the title, beating Jiri Lehecka in the final
• Shanghai Masters: lost to Zizou Bergs in the second round
• Vienna Open: won the title, defeating Alex de Minaur in the final
• Paris Masters: advanced to the quarter-finals following Matteo Berrettini’s withdrawal

Alcaraz awaits the winner of Taylor Fritz and Arthur Fils in the next round. Fils has already qualified for the year-ending ATP Finals, while Fritz is still in contention for one of the final two qualification spots.

The current ATP top three

Alexander Zverev assumed the world number one spot for the first time in his career after overtaking Jannik Sinner earlier this week.

The German is set to lose 30 ranking points following his defeat to Lorenzo Musetti in the Paris Masters second round, bringing his total down to 9,520.

Zverev leads Sinner by 70 points.

Carlos Alcaraz is the world number three and currently has 6,300 points, as per the live rankings. Alcaraz would increase his total to 7,100 by winning the Paris Masters.