Felix Auger-Aliassime has had a truly electrifying last part of the season, especially after reaching his second career semifinal in a Grand Slam tournament at the US Open. The Canadian ace has rediscovered the certainties he had lost and his game has returned to be very incisive, especially on indoor hard courts where he is able to put any opponent in difficulty.
He overtook Lorenzo Musetti in eighth place in the ATP Race and deservedly qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin, a goal achieved with enormous effort having reached the final at the Paris Masters 1000 thanks to a truly brilliant run (only world number 2 Jannik Sinner prevented him from lifting the trophy at the 'Dfense Arena').
Aliassime decided not to play in the week leading up to the Finals to avoid further stressing his body, although he knew he could be overtaken again by Musetti if the Italian star won the Athens ATP 250.
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Aliassime is ready for the huge challenge
Felix began his run at the Inalpi Arena in Turin losing to defending champion Jannik Sinner in straight sets, before defeating American ace Ben Shelton at the end of a truly electrifying battle in which a few details made the difference.
The world number 8 will face Alexander Zverev today and the winner of this match will reach the semifinals, where there will be world number 1 Carlos Alcaraz as an opponent. Sascha is ahead 6-3 in the h2h, but the Canadian player prevailed in their last clash staged at the US Open at the end of the summer.
"We faced each other not long ago and I'm happy to have a positive memory, which could help me ahead of this match," said Aliassime a few hours before one of the most important clashes of his season. "I will play with the confidence necessary to express my best tennis and let's see what happens. We know each other very well, having faced each other almost every year from 2019 onwards, so we both know what we have to do to put the other in difficulty" - he added.
