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Jannik Sinner defended his ATP Finals title and got off to a strong start in front of his home fans with a 7-5, 6-1 victory over Montreal's Felix Auger-Aliassime on Monday in Turin, Italy.
To also qualify for first place in the ranking at the end of the year. Sinner needs to win the season-ending top eight tournament and hope Carlos Alcaraz doesn't make it to the finals.
Auger-Aliassime, ranked 8th, appeared to be slowed by a left calf problem that arose towards the end of the first set. In the second set he was treated twice by his coach.
“It was really tough until it was 6-5 and then he had a physical problem,” Sinner said, referring to the moment he broke the Canadian's serve to end the first set.
Sinner won the title in Turin last year without dropping a set and has not lost at the tournament since the 2023 final to Novak Djokovic.
There was a banner in the crowd reading Sinner's “Italian Pride” and during his post-match on-court interview, Sinner was serenaded with a football chant of “Ole, ole, ole.” Sinner, Sinner.”
“This is a special tournament and place for me,” he said.
Sinner has won all four of his meetings with Auger-Aliassime this year, including the US Open semi-finals and the recent Paris Masters final.
The 2 best players in each group will advance.
Sinner and Alexander Zverev lead Bjorn Borg's group with one win each after Zverev beat Ben Shelton on Sunday.
The top two players in each group advance to the semi-finals.
Sinner scored 89 percent of the points when he made his first serve, winning 32 of those 36 points.
“I have a very complex group with people who serve very, very strongly,” Sinner said. “You need to stay focused almost throughout the match because the moment you allow a break, it will be difficult to come back.”
Earlier, Taylor Fritz beat latecomer Lorenzo Musetti 6-3, 6-4.
Unlike Musetti, who was making his debut, Fritz has experience in the tournament after reaching the final last year and the semi-finals on his debut in 2022. He also spent the past week preparing on the indoor court.
“I would say this is a very important win if I want to get out of the group,” Fritz said. “He plays a lot differently with the slices and everything. So it took me a while to get used to it.”
