by Felix Auger-Aliassime’s brilliant postseason upswing continued on Friday with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Frances Tiafoe in the Paris Masters quarterfinals.
The 22-year-old from Montreal claimed his 16th straight win with his sixth match point and hammered a forehand past the American. Auger-Aliassime came to Paris after winning three tournaments in a row.
The Canadian has secured a spot in the ATP Finals starting November 13 in Turin, Italy. It’s the first time Auger-Aliassime has qualified for the elite end-of-season tournament.
“I’m feeling better and better,” Auger-Aliassime said in an interview with ATP after the game. “I heard Novak [Djokovic] I said yesterday that you can always improve and he won like many Grand Slams, so I can definitely improve a lot more in the future.
“Obviously I’m playing well and feeling good right now, but I see things I can do better and improve to top the game.”
WATCH l Auger-Aliassime defeats American Frances Tiafoe for 16 straight wins:
Montreal’s Felix Auger-Aliassime beat American Frances Tiafoe 6-1, 6-4 to win his 16th straight game and reach the semifinals of the Paris Masters.
Leading 3-5 in the second set, Tiafoe lost five match points to hold serve. Auger-Aliassime then fell behind Love-15 and 15-30 before reeling off three straight points for the win.
Auger-Aliassime improved his record against Tiafoe to 3-0.
“Of course, at 5-3, I had match points… [He] tried everything and tried many different ways to stay in the game,” Auger-Aliassime said. “He did it for another game but I’m glad I was able to hold on to those moments.
The eighth-seeded player next meets Denmark’s Holger Rune in a replay of last week’s final at the Swiss Indoors tournament. Auger-Aliassime won the match 6-3, 7-5.
Rune passed Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz as the world No. 1 retired with injury. Rune was leading 6-3, 6-6 at this point.
Auger-Aliassime has won four titles on the ATP Tour, all coming this year. He is aiming for his first Masters level win in Paris.
Djokovic, Tsitsipas reach semifinals; Remove Alcaras
Novak Djokovic stayed on course for a record-breaking seventh Paris Masters title by beating Lorenzo Musetti 6-0, 6-3 in the quarterfinals on Friday.
Djokovic, who has titles in Israel and Kazakhstan this season, is chasing a record-breaking 39th Masters title.
Musetti troubled Djokovic in the fourth round of the French Open last year, leading by two sets before retiring in the fifth.
Not this time as the sixth-seeded Serb leveled the opener in 24 minutes against the unseeded Italian.
They traded breaks early in the second set as Musetti briefly rallied to make it 2-2.
Serving for the match, Djokovic held on to take the win when Musettei netted a wild forehand.
Djokovic leads Tsitsipas 8-2, with the last three of Djokovic’s seven straight wins all coming in the final – including a five-set thriller at the French Open last year where Djokovic recovered from two sets down.
Earlier, top-placed Carlos Alcaraz was stopped by unseeded Holger Rune of Denmark, who reached his first Masters-level semi-final.
In a match involving 19-year-old former junior doubles partners, Rune led 6-3, 6-6 and 3-1 in the tie-break when US Open champion Alcaraz retired minutes after undergoing treatment for an ab in the changeover.
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