It was a rematch of last week’s Paris Masters final, between two of the tour’s most lethal indoor hard court players. Once again we learned that there are different levels of lethal.
Jannik Sinner stretched his indoor hard court winning streak to 27 on Monday evening in Turin, taking out eight-ranked Felix Auger-Aliassime 7-5, 6-1.
“It was a very tough match until 6-5,” Sinner said. “He played some very aggressive tennis so I’m very happy that I was able to overcome a tough test today.”
If Sinner can get through the group phase unscathed he will tie Roger Federer for the fifth-longest indoor hard court winning streak in ATP history.
Sinner, the defending champion at the ATP Finals, improved to 4-0 against the Canadian in 2025, and 4-2 overall against the Montreal native.
It was a tight contest, at least for a while…
Physical struggles started to set in late in the opening set, and Sinner managed to take advantage, engineering a break from 30-0 down in the 12th game of the set to claim the opening set, 7-5 in 58 minutes.
Auger-Aliassime was seen grabbing his left calf between points late in the set, and has had recent struggles with his left knee.
Sinner was dominant in the opening set behind his serve, winning all 21 first-serve points and capturing 24 of 27 points on serve in the set.
Worst fears were realized as the second set began. It became obvious that whatever was hampering Auger-Aliassime wasn’t going away. The worry weighed him down and he tried to play quick-strike tennis to no avail, as Sinner quickly broke for 2-0 when a high-risk Auger-Aliassime forehand flew wide.
After Sinner held for 7-5, 3-0 Auger-Aliassime met with doctors on court and had the injury assessed.
“I can’t push,” he said, referring to upward thrust on his serve, as the physician worked with the left calf and initiated a medical timeout.
Auger-Aliassime soldiered on but the double-break soon came when Auger-Aliassime dumped a volley into the net giving Sinner the 5-1 lead in set two.
The Italian took it from there, closing out his 54th win of the season against just six losses with an ace in one hour and 40 minutes.
“I hope that it’s nothing too serious,” Sinner said of Auger-Aliassime. “I wish him a very speedy recovery.”
After the match Auger-Aliassime told reporters that he wasn’t worried about his issue. He expects to be fine for his next match in Turin.
“I’m not too concerned,” he said. “He’s an amazing player. You have to give credit when the guy is just better than you. Today he was better than me. I’ll get ready for the next one.
“But no, I’m not too worried.”
Sinner finished with 16 winners against 13 unforced errors, while Auger-Aliassime managed 17 winners and 33 unforced. Sinner won 32 of 36 first-serve points, never faced a break piont and needed only three aces.
Sinner moves to the top of the Bjorn Borg group in the ATP Finals standings, ahead of Alexander Zverev on the strength of games.
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