PARIS (AP) \u2014 Jannik Sinner reclaimed the No. 1 ranking in men’s tennis after beating Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-4, 7-6 (4) in the Paris Masters final on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The four-time Grand Slam champion from Italy replaced six-time major winner Carlos Alcaraz at the top as he extended his indoor winning streak to 26 matches, following up victory in Vienna last Sunday with his first Paris title.<\/p>\n
The ninth-seeded Auger-Aliassime needed to win the tournament at La D\u00e9fense Arena to clinch the eighth and final spot for the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin, Italy. <\/p>\n
But Sinner did not concede a break point chance in the match and won the tournament without dropping a set.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s huge, honestly. It was such an intense final here and we both knew what\u2019s on the line,” Sinner said. \u201cFor him it\u2019s a very tough and difficult spot but from my side I\u2019m extremely happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sinner beat Auger-Aliassime for the third straight time \u2014 including in the semifinals at this year\u2019s U.S. Open \u2014 and now leads the Canadian 3-2 in head-to-heads.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was serving extremely well,\u201d Sinner said. “You have to use your small chances well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Auger-Aliassime is one of the most consistent players indoors but overall he was unable to trouble Sinner in a one-sided contest which saw Sinner at his clinical best as he won his fifth title of the year and 23rd of his career.<\/p>\n
Sinner won on his first match point with a crisp two-handed backhand down the line, tilted his head back and raised his arms. He then patted his heart as he waved his racket to the crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe past couple of months have been amazing. We tried to work on things, tying to improve as a player and seeing this kind of result makes me extremely happy,\u201d Sinner said. \u201cIt has been an amazing year no matter what comes in Turin.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Auger-Aliassime had more aces \u2014 eight compared to six \u2014 Sinner won 91% of first-serve points compared to 81 for his opponent.<\/p>\n
Auger-Aliassime, who has won titles this year in Adelaide, Montpellier and Brussels, received a time violation warning from chair umpire Nacho Forcadell when serving at 30-30 in the ninth game of the second set.<\/p>\n
At the changeover, Auger-Aliassime stood and questioned Forcadell, who told him he should have been ready.<\/p>\n
Auger-Aliassime disagreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was ready to receive the balls, I didn\u2019t have the balls (from the ball kids),\u201d he said. \u201cIf I don\u2019t have the balls, how can I get ready to serve? I didn\u2019t have one ball in my hand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Auger-Aliassime then sat down and muttered to Forcadell: \u201cYou\u2019re not serious. You\u2019re really not serious, you\u2019re really, really not serious.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sinner served out the first set, clinching it with a whipped forehand winner at the net when his opponent\u2019s drop shot sat up invitingly.<\/p>\n
There was a brief glimpse of hope for Auger-Aliassime when he was 5-4 up and took Sinner to deuce on his serve in the 10th game.<\/p>\n
But an unforced error \u2014 a loose forehand long \u2014 let the Italian off. Sinner followed up with a love hold, featuring one exquisite drop shot followed by a clinical lob.<\/p>\n
After the defeat, Auger-Aliassime sat on his chair for a few moments with his head bowed. <\/p>\n
He still has a chance of reaching Turin and is vying with Italian Lorenzo Musetti. Both will be in action at ATP 250 tournaments, with Musetti playing in Athens and Auger-Aliassime the top seed in Metz, France.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP tennis: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tennis<\/p>\n
Jerome Pugmire, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS (AP) \u2014 Jannik Sinner reclaimed the No. 1 ranking in men’s tennis after beating Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-4,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-257163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}