Sunday, November 2nd: the final shoot-out
Debutants in the Rolex Paris Masters final, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Jannik Sinner have everything riding on this match.
Félix Auger-Aliassime knows that if he wins the Rolex Paris Masters title, he will guarantee his place in the Nitto ATP Tour Finals in Turin. Jannik Sinner knows that if he wins, he will wrench the No.1 ranking back from Carlos Alcaraz. There is more than the trophy riding on Sunday’s result. No pressure, then, gentlemen.
First, the numbers. Their head-to-head record stands at two wins apiece. Auger-Aliassime claimed both of his wins in 2022 (on clay at the Madrid Masters and on hard court at the Cincinnati Masters) while Sinner’s victories came this year: a dominant display in Cincinnati (he dropped just two games) and then a tougher battle at the US Open a few weeks later (he was taken to four sets in the semi-finals).
As they stand before the final begins, Sinner is tied with Novak Djokovic at the top of the indoor hard court leader board for active players with an 80 per cent winning record. But Auger-Aliassime is not far behind in third place – he has a 71 per cent winning record. These two love a hard court beneath their feet and a roof over their heads.
Yes, but…
The charming Felix is feeling confident – as well he might – but he is nobody’s fool. Yes, he has a decent record against Sinner but he wanted to put that record into context.
“Yeah, we're 2-2, but obviously he's the favourite on paper,” the Canadian said. “We played a good match, I think, in New York, but he still got the best of me. Obviously, the first times I won, it was before he was “Jannik”, you know? It was, like, young Jannik. He’s improved a lot since then.
“But it's always good to play him. I feel like he pushes players to be very disciplined tactically and to execute their game almost perfectly in order to win. You have to be ready to play your best tennis and to not make cheap mistakes. So I'm going to try to do that and win tomorrow.”
Seriously, no pressure
While the media and the pundits chattered about the No.1 ranking, Sinner and his team had little interest. When Darren Cahill was cornered for a quote about how important the ranking issue was, he was quite clear: “Not at all." At this point in the season with the Italian – like everyone else – feeling jaded, Cahill assured Sky TV that “I know it’s a cliché, but it’s just one match at time”.
Sinner, meanwhile, knows that he is going to be up against a fearsome opponent. “Felix plays incredible tennis at the moment,” he said. “He has improved a lot, especially in the past months; he has found his game again. I’m very happy for Felix: he is one of the nicest guys we have on tour and sharing the final with him is going to be something special. We try to push each other to the limits and it’s going to be a very difficult match. I will enjoy the atmosphere and after, I know that I will have a couple of days off which helps, too!”
Double exposure
Court Central opens with the doubles final: Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten against Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool. It is the Australian Open champions (that would be Harri and Henry) against the Wimbledon champions. Or the No.1 and No.2 doubles players in the world (Julian and Lloyd) against the joint No.7s. And Cash and Glasspool have won all four of their duels this year. “It would be nice to get one against them before Turin,” Heliovaara said with a broad smile.
Turn up or tune in early to see if he and Henry can cause the upset – this is a popcorn doubles final.
Friends and rivals
Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid are doubles partners and long-time singles rivals. The two Brits have won, between them, 35 Grand Slam titles. Hewett has won 10 major singles trophies; Reid has two. But in doubles, they have amassed 23 Grand Slam titles and, in 2021, swept the board to win the Grand Slam.
Now the two old pals meet in the wheelchair singles final to begin proceedings on Court 2 before joining forces to take on Martin De La Puente and Ruben Spaargaren in the doubles final. “We prepare for this type of day, but I covered 12 kilometres during the doubles semi-final, so I feel like I need to recover! Gordon is a great player and I hope it will be fun to play against him and that we'll be at 100%. It's never easy because one of us has to lose, but we'll be together afterwards. It's a pretty unique situation in sport, but we've done it so many times, it won't be that different this Sunday," explained Alfie Hewett.
