Felix Auger-Aliassime is playing the best tennis of his life heading into the Nitto ATP Finals, and that’s an understatement. Having previously won just a single title in his career, the 22-year-old Canadian reeled off three titles in back-to-back-to-back weeks last month in Florence, Antwerp, and Basel. He then took the court for a fourth consecutive week and reached the Paris Masters semifinals before falling to eventual champion Holger Rune.
Auger-Aliassime’s reward is best-ever ranking of No. 6 in the world and a debut appearance in the year-end championship.
He will kick off his campaign inside the Pala Alpitour in Turin on Sunday afternoon against Casper Ruud, who leads the head-to-head series 2-1 at the ATP level and 3-2 overall. They have faced each other twice on hard courts, with Auger-Aliassime prevailing 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 at the 2019 Miami Masters before Ruud rolled 6-1, 6-2 this summer at the Montreal Masters.
Ruud is making his second trip to Turin following a mostly successful conclusion to his 2021 season. The fourth-ranked Norwegian compiled a 2-1 round-robin record to qualify for the semis, bouncing back from a loss to Novak Djokovic by beating Cameron Norrie and Andrey Rublev. His run came to an end in the form of a 6-4, 6-2 setback against Daniil Medvedev.
Ruud’s current form pales in comparison to that of Auger-Aliassime. The 23-year-old’s 2022 campaign has been an awesome one–headlined by runner-up showings at the French Open and U.S. Open–but he is understandably wearing out down the stretch. Ruud lost in his second match in Seoul, bowed out right away in Tokyo and Basel, and lost his second match at the Paris Masters. The four opponents who defeated him were ranked 56th, 58th, 194th, and 23rd.
Playing much better tennis right now on a surface that favors his game, Auger-Aliassime should have little trouble maintaining momentum.
Pick: Auger-Aliassime in 2
WWW?
Was! Form isn’t static which is something you clearly still need to learn.
I thought you would learned that last week with Tsitsipas, but obviously not.
Commonsense goes a long way when predicting tennis results.
What’s going on with Augier?! Blows hot and cold like this! Y aren’t we seeing the results by now?! Losing matches he really ought to be winning!!! Cmon Augier!!!!! Get ure head fixed!