Carlos Alcaraz hit 25 winners as he outplayed Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-2, 6-4 reach his 11th final of the year – where he will play defending champion Jannik Sinner in the final singles match of the 2025 season.
Alcaraz produced some scintillating tennis during the first set, hitting winners from all parts of the court and regularly rushing his opponent. He broke serve first when 2-1 up after a trademark rally around the court followed by a drop shot which set up an easy put away volley. Although he faced a breakpoint in the next game, he came through the pressure to break again as he sealed the opening set in style.
“I felt like I could do everything [in the first set]. I felt like I could do everything on court. It doesn’t matter if I go forehand down the line, drop sorts, crosscourt and down the line, I felt like everything was going to be in,” said Alcaraz talking about his blistering first set. “I think that my confidence is really high, through the whole match and just pushing him the limit, pushing him to try to do something different. I’m just happy that I continued, you know, playing such a great tennis.”
Auger-Aliassime improved significantly in the second set and put up a firm fight, holding serve well and regularly reaching 30-all on his return games. But he felt the scoreboard pressure at 4-5 down and his forehand cracked as he threw in four errors to concede the game, set and match.
Although he lost, the Canadian can reflect on a fine second half to the season where he has accumulated a late burst of points to end at a career high of number five in the world. His next task is to improve on different surfaces (clay and grass) so that he can cut down the gap to the top two.
Fittingly, the best two players of the last twelve months have reached the final of this event. They have both won two Grand Slams this year – as they did in 2024 – and won all four of their matches this week.
“If it was someone else, I wouldn’t mind, to be honest!” joked Alcaraz afterwards. “But obviously, it’s great facing Jannik. it is great, because thanks to him, I was just trying to approach today’s match in a different way. Tomorrow, I have to be more focussed. I know that I have to play my best if I want to beat him, if I want to win the tournament. So, I think we both are going to raise our level which is going be great for both of us, and for the crowd.”
Although the race for number one has now been settled, the two superstars face off in a box-office season-ending finale where Alcaraz will hope to tame the home crowd and look to win his first ATP Finals title against the defending champion.
