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Zverev turns up finally. The crowd jeer him a little for his tardiness.
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The tennis ball bouncing like a heartbeat is heard loudly over the speakers. Auger-Aliassime is waiting in the wings; Zverev hasn’t turned up yet. I wonder how hard Auger-Aliassime’s heart is beating right now; victory tonight would be one of his biggest, given it would give him a place in the semi-finals.
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“It’s do or die for both,” says Boris Becker, who’s chatting to Laura Robson on Sky. “Felix has got a huge first serve, very powerful forehand, he can throw in a few too many errors, but right now is full of confidence. From a German point of view I want Sascha to go through. I don’t think he wants to go home yet.”
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The stage is set at the Inalpi Arena, the lights have gone down and the players should be on court shortly. Which gives us just enough time to talk tactics.
I think this comes down to who is willing to step up and play closer to the baseline – which Auger-Aliassime did against Shelton in his previous match, but Zverev failed to do against Sinner. Yes, Zverev has done much more in tennis than his opponent, having won this tournament twice and reached three slam finals, but in the biggest matches there’s sometimes a sense he’d rather his opponent misses than he hits a winner. Auger-Aliassime attacked Zverev at will when defeating the German at this year’s US Open, and a similar strategy this evening could lead the Canadian into his first ATP Finals semi-final.
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Some ceremonies too. Alcaraz has been presented with his year-end world No 1 trophy:
And the players who retired in 2025, including Britain’s Kyle Edmund, have been recognised on court. Ach, Edmund … he could have been a contender, he should have been a contender, but for the injuries that wrecked his career:
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Meanwhile in the doubles, Britain’s Henry Patten and his Finnish partner Harri Heliovaara, favourites of this blog, also won in straight sets this afternoon to make the last four. And Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski have got the evening crowd warmed up for Zverev and Auger-Aliassime by beating the Americans Christian Harrison and Evan King 7-5, 6-3. It means they take a 3-0 record into their all-British semi-final against the top seeds Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool. So that makes it five (!) Brits still in the doubles.
Neal Skupski, left, and Joe Salisbury and an obligatory fist bump. Photograph: Valerio Pennicino/Getty ImagesShare
Earlier today, also in the Bjorn Borg group, Jannik Sinner did what Jannik Sinner does, winning his third successive match in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6, against the already eliminated Ben Shelton. Next for the defending champ and home hero is Alex De Minaur in the semi-finals – a player he boasts one of the most lop-sided records in men’s tennis against, having won all 12 of their previous meetings.
It’s three wins from three for Jannik Sinner. Photograph: Alessandro Di Marco/EPAShare
Preamble
The occupational hazards of round-robin tennis mean by this stage of the ATP Finals we’re often left scratching our heads, scrambling about for a calculator and trying to work out the brain-busting permutations of qualification. But tonight’s match between Alexander Zverev and Felix Auger-Aliassime, mercifully, is easy. It’s a straight shootout: the winner sets up a semi-final against Carlos Alcaraz at this season-ending event; the loser goes home (or, if it’s Auger-Aliassime, perhaps he’ll finally head off on honeymoon, having been unable to step off the tennis treadmill for long enough after he got married a couple of months ago).
Zverev is the favourite for this: the world No 3 is the more accomplished player, has been the champion at this tournament twice before and leads their head-to-head 6-3, winning both their previous matches on an indoor hard court. But … this is the surface on which Auger-Aliassime has claimed the majority of his titles, he’s riding a high after his compelling comeback against Ben Shelton on Wednesday (when Zverev was surprisingly flat in his straight-sets defeat by Jannik Sinner), and he took out Zverev in the US Open third round in August. Plus, conditions are faster in Turin than at Flushing Meadows, which works even more in AA’s favour.
If Zverev holds back, as he did against Sinner, and Auger-Aliassime takes it to the German with his stinging serves and fearhands, it could well be the 25-year-old Canadian – the former prodigy who was once in line ahead of Alcaraz and Sinner to take over from the Big Three – who earns the dubious honour of facing the world No 1 tomorrow.
Play begins: at about 8.30pm local time, 7.30pm GMT.
To get you going:
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