TURIN, Italy – Felix Auger-Aliassime defeated two-time champion Alexander Zverev on Friday to book the final spot in the ATP Finals semi-finals.
Canadian reward? Carlos Alcaraz just won all three of his group matches and took first place in the year-end rankings.
“This is a valuable tournament for the players,” said Auger-Aliassime. “It’s like a grand finale and when you look at the list of champions, there are a lot of No. 1s.
“You want to get to the finals, but you have to go through great players to get there. If I get a chance, I’m going to take it.”
Eighth seed Auger-Aliassime won 6-4, 7-6 (4) to advance from the Bjorn Borg group along with Jannik Sinner. Earlier, Sinner defeated Ben Shelton, who had already been eliminated, 6-3, 7-6 (3) to complete all round-robin matches.
Sinner will next face seventh seed Alex de Minaur. The final is on Sunday.
Third seeds Zverev and Auger-Aliassime knew the winner would advance to the semi-finals.
Auger-Aliassime seemed to handle the nerves better than Zverev, especially in the second set, although he wasted three set points in the first set before taking a set point in the fourth.
Zverev failed to convert on any of his four break point opportunities and made 18 of 27 unforced errors in the second set, during which he repeatedly gestured towards his team in obvious frustration.
He slotted an easy return into the net, giving Auger-Aliassime two match points. The Canadian only needed one as Zverev hit a forehand long.
This will be Auger-Aliassime’s first appearance in the top eight semi-finals of the season.
“It feels great,” he said. “I always believed that I could be in moments like this and win these kinds of games, but you still have to come and do it.
“I think both of us were emotional today…and played well when we needed to…I’m blessed and very happy to be in the semifinals.”
innocent sinner
Sinner, who watched Alcaraz hoist the No. 1 player trophy just before the game, proved he was still the man to beat in Turin.
With the support of the home crowd, the defending champions finished the group stage unscathed. Sinner hasn’t lost a set game or service game all week. The Italian didn’t drop a set in the five matches en route to winning the title last year.
