Montreal’s Félix Auger-Aliassime was eliminated from the ATP Finals, losing in straight sets 7-6(4), 6-7(5), 6-2 to American Taylor Fritz on Thursday evening in Turin.
Auger-Aliassime and Fritz, respectively sixth and ninth in the ATP rankings, were battling for the last available spot in the semi-finals among the four players who made up the Green Group.
Fighting was what they did for 2 hours 43 minutes and they were unfazed until the sixth game of the deciding set when Fritz scored the very first break of the clash.
Until then unable to threaten the Montrealer’s serve, Fritz was finally able to take advantage of four break chances in this sixth game, his first of the match. The fourth was good when Auger-Aliassime sent a forehand down the hallway, giving Fritz a 4-2 lead.
The American consolidated this break with a perfect game on his serve and he ended the game on the Montrealer’s serve, on his first match point when Auger-Aliassime sent a backhand in the doubles corridor.
With this victory, his second in as many attempts against Auger-Aliassime, Fritz will face Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals on Saturday.
Untouchable Services
During the first set, Auger-Aliassime and Fritz were intractable in the service leaving no chance of breaking the rival.
Fritz was particularly stellar on his serve in that first set, giving Auger-Aliassime just five points.
During the tiebreaker, the Montrealer made a mini-break from the first point before conceding himself a mini-break on the next point. Fritz took a 4-2 lead when Auger-Aliassime sent a backhand down the doubles lane.
Fritz managed to protect that lead, and he completed the first set in 59 minutes on a forehand from Auger-Aliassime that flew over the baseline on his second set point.
It took until the second game of the second set to see the first chances of breaking the match. They belonged to Auger-Aliassime, who was unable to convert them.
Fritz found himself faced with a 15-40 deficit and he took advantage of a too long setback from Auger-Aliassime to save the first. A service winner allowed Fritz to erase the second.
A backhand winner from Auger-Aliassime gave him a third break point to which Fritz responded, once again, with a service winner before earning his serve two points later.
From then on, Fritz and Auger-Aliassime both played brilliantly on serve to achieve a second tiebreaker.
This time, it was the Montrealer who had the best, thanks to two brilliant consecutive forehands that gave Fritz no chance, when the score was 5-5.
Nadal ends on a high note
Earlier in the day, Rafael Nadal was able to leave the ATP Finals with a victory to his credit, as he took the measure of Casper Ruud 7-5, 7-5.
Nadal, the favorite of the competition, defeated Ruud after an hour and 42 minutes on the main court of the Pala Alpitour in Turin. He thus increased his record in the tournament to 1-2, but he was already eliminated when he appeared on the court.
The 36-year-old Spaniard also improved his career record to 2-0 against third-seeded Ruud. He had defeated him in the final of the French Open this spring.
For his part, Ruud was already guaranteed to finish first in the Green Group and to participate in the semi-finals, following his previous victories against Auger-Aliassime and Fritz.