Felix Auger-Aliassime surges past Zverev to reach ATP Finals semis, sets Alcaraz clash

For a player who nearly didn’t punch his ticket to Turin, Felix Auger-Aliassime is now making a thunderous statement on tennis’s biggest indoor stage.

On Friday night at the Nitto ATP Finals, the 23-year-old Canadian capped a stunning group-stage comeback with a 6-4, 7-6 victory over two-time champion Alexander Zverev.

With that, he not only clinched a place in the semifinals for the first time in his career but also became just the second Canadian ever — after Milos Raonic in 2016 — to reach the final four of the season-ending showpiece.

And now the reward is a high-voltage semifinal duel with World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz.

“This is a high-value tournament for players,” Auger-Aliassime reflected afterward. “It’s like a grand finale and when you have a look at the list of champions, there have been many No. 1s. You want to be in the final but I’ll have to go through a great player to do that. I will take my chance if I have it.”

Not long ago, it looked as though he wouldn’t get that chance at all.

Auger-Aliassime dropped his opening match in straight sets and lost the first set of his second, flirting with the brink of elimination. But since then, he’s reeled off four consecutive set wins, first toppling Ben Shelton, then holding his nerve against a dangerous Zverev, who entered with far more Finals pedigree.

In their high-stakes round-robin decider, Auger-Aliassime showed the resilience and steel that has defined his 2025 resurgence. Zverev threw everything at him early, earning break points in the fifth and ninth games, but Felix stood tall behind his first serve and refused to blink.

Then, at 5-4, he pounced, finally breaking through on his fourth set point with a cross-court forehand that ripped the rug from under Zverev.

“It was a great first set. He was getting a few chances but I came up with big serves to save them,” he said. “The first set was very solid and the start of the second set was, too. I had a lot of chances.”

The second set was a tense seesaw of missed opportunities and mental battles. Auger-Aliassime had Zverev on the ropes at 15-40 early on, but couldn’t convert. Moments later, he had to save 15-40 himself. At 3-all, he squandered a 40-0 lead before eking out the hold. This was trench warfare, not ballet.

“When a match is high stakes, the mentality is crucial,” he told Tennis Channel afterward. “I think your biggest challenge is self-belief in these matches so you have to come in with the best belief. You know you’re going to play a tough opponent, you know you’re going to have to be decisive when you need to, you’re going to have to be smart, you’re going to have to stay calm.”

He did just that. In the breaker, he held firm at 5-4, then reeled off the final two points via Zverev errors to seal the win in two hours and seven minutes.

“There was high tension in the second set,” he added. “But at the end, I was able with a positive mindset … believing that my chance would come, and seize it.”

The victory marked Auger-Aliassime’s 50th tour-level win of the year, and also his second against Zverev in 2025—he beat him at the US Open in September. Although the German still leads their head-to-head 6-4, the momentum now firmly sits with Felix.