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Canada’s Félix Auger-Aliassime fell 6-2, 6-4 to Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals of the ATP Finals tennis tournament on Saturday.
The Montreal native was coming off a straight-sets upset win over third-ranked Alexander Zverev of Germany on Friday.
However, the top-ranked Alcaraz proved to be too much.
Auger-Aliassime had five aces to just one double fault but failed to break on his lone opportunity in the match. Alcaraz, who will face second-ranked Jannik Sinner of Italy in Sunday’s final, also had five aces and one double fault, but broke on three of his eight chances.
With the opening set tied at 1-1, Alcaraz jumped out to a 4-1 edge before winning two of the three final games to take the set.
In the second, Auger-Aliassime was chasing, but pushed Alcaraz to a 4-4 tie. Alcaraz only gave up two points in the final two games to emerge victorious.
Sinner beats de Minaur
Sinner beat Alex de Minaur 7-5, 6-2 on Saturday — improving to 13-0 against the Australian — to reach the championship match of the ATP Finals before his home fans.
The second-ranked Sinner is aiming to retain his title in the season-ending tournament for the year’s top eight players. Sinner will face Alcaraz or Felix Auger-Aliassime in Sunday’s final.
Alcaraz already secured the year-ending No. 1 ranking but is seeking to reach his first final at this event.
Sinner and Alcaraz have met in the last three Grand Slam finals. Alcaraz beat Sinner in a fifth-set tiebreaker to win the French Open; Sinner gained a measure of revenge by beating Alcaraz for the Wimbledon trophy; then Alcaraz again came out on top at the U.S. Open.
Sinner also won the Australian Open — beating Alexander Zverev in the final — so he and Alcaraz each won two majors this year.
It’s the third consecutive final in Turin for Sinner, who hasn’t dropped a set at finals since getting beat by Novak Djokovic in the 2023 championship match — a run of 18 consecutive sets.
Sinner saved three break points in his opening service game after falling behind 0-40 and then finally managed to break De Minaur for a 6-5 advantage before serving the set out.
The second set was never really in question, as Sinner jumped out to a 4-0 lead.
“I was happy with how I served and with how I reacted in the important moments,” Sinner said.
Sinner extended his winning streak on indoor hard courts to 31 matches — also stretching back to that 2023 final against Djokovic. He hasn’t dropped his serve this week.
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