Sinner goes past ailing Alexander Zverev to qualify for Paris Final

Jannik Sinner cruised past ailing Alexander Zverev by 6-0, 6-1 in the semifinal of the Paris Masters on Saturday. The German was struggling physically and thus could not bring his best to the court. Zverev had saved two match points against Daniil Medvedev in the quarterfinal but struggled to get going against the Italian.

Sinner now has a chance to reclaim his top position in the PIF ATP rankings if he goes on to win the final on Sunday. With this win, Sinner improved to 5-4 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Zverev.

“When you drop the physicality like he did, you cannot find the full power on serve,” said Sinner, who won 13 of 16 second-serve return points, according to Infosys ATP Stats. “I’m happy to be in the final, but it’s not how you want to arrive. Playing against Sascha is always a special occasion, and today he was clearly not 100 per cent, we saw that.

“He was struggling physically. He won an incredible match yesterday, two match points down… Making the final in Vienna, coming here and making the semis again, it’s an incredible run, but we all hope that he gets better and fit for Turin.”

Sinner will face in-form Felix Auger-Aliassime in the summit clash on Sunday and the World No.2 admitted it is going to be challenging against the Canadian.

“He plays incredible tennis at the moment, he has improved a lot,” Sinner said of Auger-Aliassime. “Especially in the past months, he has found his game again. I’m looking forward to it tomorrow, it’s a great occasion for both of us. I’m very happy for Felix, he is one of the nicest guys we have on Tour. It’s going to be a very difficult match.”