What’s a tennis fan to make of Paris Bercy?

The final ATP 1000 of the season and one of the few remaining that is just one week, unfolding on a tennis court apparently painted onto something like an ice rink. World No. 1 Jannik Sinner withdrawing with an intestinal virus a little more than a week after winning a record $6million (£4.6million) at the Six Kings Slam exhibition in Saudi Arabia (which he says he didn’t play for the money).

Home favorite Ugo Humbert dispatching Carlos Alcaraz with a performance from the gods, before evaporating against Alexander Zverev in the final — who becomes world No. 2 with two titles for the year to Alcaraz’s four, two of which are Grand Slams. Nearly every contender in the race for the ATP Tour Finals in Turin flaming out in Novak Djokovic’s absence, with only Alex de Minaur giving himself a late push into the top eight.

Djokovic remains undecided about whether he will bother with the season-ending tournament. If he doesn’t care, how much should everybody else?

This is how it always goes for tennis post-U.S. Open. Players drag and fan interest drops except for in-person attendance across Asia and Europe. In Paris, the small stadiums, kaleidoscopic walk-on tunnel and raucous atmosphere lend an atmosphere of pyrotechnic chaos at a time of year when tennis appears to be about serving tournament directors and fulfilling television contracts more than putting on a good show.

In the last incarnation of Paris Bercy at the bandbox Accor Arena in east Paris, before it moves to the significantly more capacious La Defense Arena next year, chaos has reigned supreme. Beware of extrapolating anything that happens at this moment into a likely narrative for next season. Sink into the late-season digression into indoor tennis on fast courts, which can make the best in the world look like janky video game characters, and see what unfolds.

Cracking through the tumult was Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard’s serve, which carried him to a first ATP 500-level title in Basel, Switzerland and then to victory over Frances Tiafoe in his home country.

On a fast indoor court, he gets to launch his serve without a worry about sun or wind, lessening the chance that opponents can use a canny block or slice return to knock him off balance. His average second serve in Basel traveled at 129mph; he hit 22 aces and just two double faults in 11 service games and two sets in the final against Ben Shelton, whose huge serve looked downright mortal compared with Mpetshi Perricard’s.

Until Karen Khachanov broke him in the second set of their meeting in Paris, Mpetshi Perricard had won 86 service games in a row. In the first set of that match, he won a tiebreak 14-12, having not won a single return point until that tiebreak. After that, he faded out.

Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard’s touch and groundstrokes complement his serve. (Julian Finney / Getty Images)

The Frenchman, who will likely finish the year ranked around No. 30 after starting it at No. 205, was under no illusions about what is going on, and what lies ahead.

“I have to work on a lot of things,” he said after that match. “When we have three-, four-shot rallies, it’s not obvious for me to move around. Even though I actually managed to do it quite well, I will need hours of practice.”

That would figure to be a healthy attitude for anyone who gets on a roll this time of year. The cautionary tale is Felix Auger-Aliassime.

Auger-Aliassime, a can’t-miss prospect of the late 2010s, finally appeared to be hitting his stride two years ago. With China still closed because of COVID-19 restrictions, the ATP Tour filled the gaps with a series of tournaments in Europe. Auger-Aliassime, who has a big flat serve and strokes to match, got hot. He had won just one tournament previously. Then he went to Florence and won there. He went to Antwerp and won there. He went to Basel and won there too. In Paris, he went to the semifinals before losing to Holger Rune, the eventual champion. 

When the dust settled, Auger-Aliassime had played his way into the Tour Finals. Big things were predicted for 2023. He made the fourth round at the Australian Open… and didn’t win another Grand Slam match all year, though he did retain his title in Basel.

So what to make of this fall’s results, including wins for Khachanov in Kazakhstan, Tommy Paul in Sweden, Jack Draper in Austria, Roberto Bautista Agut in Belgium, and the aforementioned Mpetshi Perricard in Switzerland?  Only Khachanov made the final eight in Paris, before getting injured in a deciding set against Humbert at the semifinal stage.

Among those still alive come the quarterfinals, no one was happier than De Minaur, who stomped around the court pumping his fists as though he’d made his first Grand Slam semifinal when he beat Draper in three sets. He had good reason. Finally healthy again after a nasty hip injury this summer, De Minaur is right on the bubble in eighth place with one week of tournaments left before Turin. If Djokovic takes a pass, De Minaur is a near lock after getting to the business end of Bercy’s skating, skidding exhibition of tennis.

Ugo Humbert’s flat game and home support carried him to the final in Paris. (Julian Finney / Getty Images)

Alcaraz seemed not so sure about it being tennis at all after his loss to Humbert. He tried to be careful about his words, since he didn’t want to diminish Humbert’s win and make an excuse. Then again, he’d beaten Humbert soundly on an indoor court in the Davis Cup in September.

“The court was way slower than this one,” he said. “This is crazy.”

He said he did not know why organizers had set it up this way. “I had to come earlier to get used to these conditions but I didn’t. Honestly, all I can say is I don’t understand why they did it.”

Humbert, not surprisingly, had a different view of what had transpired. He was one of five French players to reach the last 16, and the first French male player to reach a 1000-level final since 2016, but it was the match against Alcaraz that he treasured.

“It’s the most beautiful victory in my career, and it’s the best moment I lived on a tennis court,” he said. “Incredible.”

After a string of chest-beating yells and salutes to the frenzied home crowd against Khachanov in the semifinal, he faced Zverev for his first ATP 1000 title.

He won four games.

The Paris Masters is moving, but may its chaos stay the same. Just don’t try to read anything into it.

(Top photo: Dimitar Dilkoff / AFP via Getty Images)