Italy’s Jannik Sinner, the world’s No. 2 player, played like it on Saturday in France, coasting past Germany’s Alexander Zverev 6-0, 6-1 to advance to the final of the Rolex Paris Masters.
Sinner racked up eight aces and was 90% (19 of 21) on first serve points. He added 6 of 9 break point conversions and won 54 of 80 (68%) total points.
This is Sinner’s first final reached at the Paris Masters.
“I’m happy to be in the final, but it’s not how you want to arrive,” Sinner said.
Zverev provided little resistance after his elongated 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5) victory over Daniil Medvedev on Friday night, showing signs of fatigue early and often.
The German finally got his first game to start the second set, but any hopes of a rally were quickly quashed. Sinner reeled off six straight winning games to close out the second set and the victory.
Sinner, who earned 23 winners, felt his opponent clearly wasn’t at his best
“Playing against Sascha is always a special occasion, and today he was clearly not 100 percent, we saw that,” Sinner said. “He was struggling physically. He won an incredible match yesterday.”
Sinner advances to face ATP No. 10 Felix Auger-Aliassime in the final. The Canadian scrapped a little more than Sinner, but he ultimately came up in the winner’s column with a 7-6 (3), 6-4 victory over Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik.
Auger-Aliassime had 12 aces compared to Bublik’s five, netting 26 winners in total.
“He plays incredible tennis at the moment, he has improved a lot,” Sinner said. “Especially in the past months, he has found his game again. I’m looking forward to it tomorrow, it’s a great occasion for both of us. I’m very happy for Felix, he is one of the nicest guys we have on Tour. It’s going to be a very difficult match.”
It will be an opportunity for Sinner to catch rival Carlos Alcaraz in the ATP rankings to reclaim the No. 1 ranking. Sinner trails by 100 points.
Sinner and Auger-Aliassime are 2-2 against one another, with Sinner having taken the last two matchups earlier this year at the US Open and at Cincinnati.
–Field Level Media
