Cameron Norrie beat Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 in 1 hour 42 minutes in the first round of the Paris Masters 1000 on Monday, setting up a meeting with third seed Ben Shelton. Norrie, ranked No. 45, came into the tournament needing to reach the third round to avoid dropping out of the top 50, as he is defending the points from his run to the 2025 Metz final.

It was their second meeting, after Arnaldi beat Norrie 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 in the third round of the 2023 US Open.

Norrie holds every service game in the deciding set against Arnaldi

Each player won 73 points and broke serve three times. The match turned in the third set, where Norrie held all five of his service games and broke once. Arnaldi hit 34 winners to Norrie’s 22, but made 28 unforced errors, 12 of them in the deciding set. The Briton made 21.

Arnaldi, ranked No. 36 and a Roland-Garros semi-finalist this season, came into Paris with a 3-11 record on hard courts in 2026.

Rolex Paris Masters 2026 first-round results

Lorenzo Musetti d. Hubert Hurkacz 7-6 (3), 7-6 (10)
Luca Van Assche d. Mariano Navone 6-3, 7-5
Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Learner Tien (15) (Tuesday)
Novak Djokovic (10) vs Valentin Vacherot (Tuesday)
Rinky Hijikata (Q) d. Luciano Darderi 6-2, 6-2
Andrey Rublev vs Tomas Martin Etcheverry (Tuesday)
Cameron Norrie d. Matteo Arnaldi 6-4, 1-6, 6-3
Mattia Bellucci (Q) d. Lorenzo Sonego (Q) 6-4, 6-3
Arthur Rinderknech vs Francisco Cerundolo (16) (Tuesday)
Tommy Paul (12) vs Holger Rune (PR) (Tuesday)
Daniel Merida d. Sebastian Baez (LL) 6-4, 6-2
Quentin Halys vs Arthur Fery (Tuesday)
Jan-Lennard Struff (SE) vs Arthur Gea (WC) (Tuesday)
Casper Ruud d. Juan Manuel Cerundolo (Q) 6-3, 6-2
Rafael Jodar (9) d. Alejandro Tabilo 6-2, 6-3
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (13) vs Moise Kouame (WC) (Tuesday)
Denis Shapovalov vs Karen Khachanov (Monday)
Ignacio Buse d. Zizou Bergs 6-2, 6-4
Kyrian Jacquet (WC) vs Tomas Machac (Q) (Monday)
Alex Molcan (Q) vs Titouan Droguet (WC) (Monday)
Benjamin Bonzi (Q) vs Taylor Fritz (11) (Tuesday)
Brandon Nakashima (14) vs Matteo Berrettini (Tuesday)
Ugo Humbert vs Botic van de Zandschulp (Monday)
Alex Michelsen vs Jiri Lehecka (Tuesday)