The 2025 Nitto ATP Finals remain on Felix Auger-Aliassime’s radar, but only just.
With his hopes of reaching the prestigious season finale at the Rolex Paris Masters hanging by a thread on Wednesday, the Canadian pulled off a nail-biting 5-7, 7-6(5), 7-6(4) victory against Alexandre Muller to stay in the hunt for Turin.
Watch Auger-Aliassime’s magical moment to spark Paris’ comeback:
Auger-Aliassime took the field at La Défense Arena in Paris knowing that a second-round exit to home favorite Muller at the indoor ATP Masters 1000 would end his hopes of a top eight finish in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin. The ninth seed was quickly down a set and a break, but was able to hold on for a crucial win despite putting in a wildly inconsistent performance overall.
The 25-year-old Auger-Aliassime fired 50 winners, including 21 aces, but his efforts were undermined by his 55 unforced errors. In contrast, Muller hit 20 winners and made just 24 unforced errors, but the world number 44 could not find a way to victory after dropping a 2-0, 40/30 lead in the second set.
Auger-Aliassime missed a match point when returning at 6-5, 30/40 in the deciding set, but later won seven of the last eight points of the match to recover from 0/3 in the decisive tie-break and seal his three hour and five minute triumph. With his 80th indoor victory as Tour leader this decade, the Canadian came within 390 points of Lorenzo Musetti in eighth place in the Live Race.
Auger-Aliassime will next look to keep the pressure on Italian Musetti when he takes on Daniel Altmaier in the third round. Altmaier earlier ended 11th-ranked Casper Ruud’s Nitto ATP Finals qualification hopes with a 6-3, 7-5 defeat.
Defending champion Alexander Zverev also had to dig deep to book his place in the third round. The German eased past Camilo Ugo Carabelli 6-7(5), 6-1, 7-5 to extend his Rolex Paris Masters winning streak to six matches and improve to 2-0 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with the Argentinian.
Watch highlights from Zverev’s hard-earned win in Paris
“Certainly [a good win]” said Zverev, who came into action just four days after his defeat in the Vienna championship match against Jannik Sinner in his post-match interview. “Especially after a tough match. [loss] last week. To come out here, and I didn’t expect him to play the way he did, to be completely honest.
“It’s something I have to learn from. I played against him in Rome and he was nowhere near that level. That’s a mistake on my part. I have to prepare better for my opponents, but he was fantastic today.”
Zverev vaulted Novak Djokovic into third place in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin as a result of his two-hour, 36-minute victory against Ugo Carabelli. He had already qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals and will next face Alejandro Davidovich Fokina or home wildcard Arthur Cazaux in the French capital.
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