After Jannik Sinner finished a clean sweep of the Bjorn Borg Group, Felix Auger-Aliassime punched his ticket to the semifinals of the Nitto ATP Finals with a win over Alexander Zverev on Friday in Turin, Italy.
Auger-Aliassime, the eighth seed in the eight-man season finale, earned his second win of the week by taking down the third-seeded German 6-4, 7-6 (4). Both players were 1-1 in group play entering Friday.
Now the 25-year-old Canadian is moving on to face top seed Carlos Alcaraz of Spain in the semifinals.
“This is a high-value tournament for players,” said Auger-Aliassime, whose Friday opponent won the ATP Finals in 2018 and 2021. “It’s like a grand finale and when you have a look at the list of champions, there have been many No. 1s. You want to be in the final but I’ll have to go through a great player to do that. I will take my chance if I have it.”
Auger-Aliassime has made the most of his debut in the event. The only other players to win two matches in the round-robin group stage were Alcaraz and Sinner, each of whom went 3-0. Auger-Aliassime fell to Sinner early in the tournament before rallying to beat Ben Shelton in three sets.
On Friday, he hit 11 aces without a double fault against Zverev and saved all four break points he faced. Zverev staved off 6 of 7 break points, but Auger-Aliassime came back from down 4-3 in the second-set tiebreaker to ensure the match wouldn’t need a third set.
“It was a great first set. He was getting a few chances but I came up with big serves to save them,” Auger-Aliassime said. “The first set was very solid and the start of the second set was, too. I had a lot of chances.
“When that happens you need to focus on the present but you’re aware of missed opportunities, so the match got a little tense from that moment. But I was able to hold serve and in the tiebreak it was tight till the end.”
Sinner completed his sweep of the group by beating Shelton 6-3, 7-6 (3). Shelton was the only player in either group to go 0-3 in Turin.
Sinner, who will face Australia’s Alex de Minaur in the semis, hit 11 aces without a double fault Friday and had 27 winners and 38 of 47 first-service points won (80.9%).
Sinner is the defending champ and is on a collision course with Alcaraz in the final.
“When you come here and win all three round-robin matches, you have to play at a very high level, which I’ve done,” Sinner said. “Serving very well in important moments has brought me to this point. It was a very special day playing in front of the home crowd, and against Ben it’s always a tough challenge.”
–Field Level Media
