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Overview

The inherent challenges of round-robin tennis often result in at this point of the ATP Finals viewers are commonly scratching our heads, hastily looking for a mathematical tool and attempting to calculate the brain-busting qualification scenarios. Yet tonight’s match between Alexander Zverev and Felix Auger-Aliassime, fortunately, is easy. It’s a straight shootout: the successful player sets up a semifinal contest against Carlos Alcaraz at this season-ending event; the defeated player is eliminated.

Zverev is the favourite for this: the world No 3 is the player with greater achievements, has previously won at this competition previously on two instances and leads their head-to-head with six victories against three defeats, winning both their past encounters on an indoor hard court.

However … this particular court on which Felix has secured most of his championships, he is in great form after his remarkable turnaround against Shelton on recently and he took out the German in the US Open initial phase in late summer. Additionally, conditions are faster in the host city than at Flushing Meadows, which works even more in AA’s favour.

If Zverev holds back, similar to his performance against Sinner, and Auger-Aliassime takes it to the German with his stinging serves and fearless play, there is a strong chance the young Canadian – the earlier standout who was previously positioned ahead of Alcaraz and Sinner to take over from the tennis icons – who secures the dubious honour of playing against the top-ranked player the next day.

Action commences: at approximately 8:30 PM in Turin, 7:30 PM in the UK.