Alexander Zverev Faces Auger-Aliassime in ATP World Tour Finals Showdown
Preamble
The typical complications of group stage tennis typically lead to at this point of the season-ending championships viewers are commonly scratching our heads, hastily looking for a calculator and trying to work out the brain-busting permutations of qualification. But today's game between Alexander Zverev and Auger-Aliassime, mercifully, is straightforward. It’s a straight shootout: the winner earns a final four matchup against Carlos Alcaraz at this year-end tournament; the defeated player goes home.
Zverev is the predicted winner for this: the third-ranked player is the more experienced competitor, has previously won at this event previously on two instances and holds the advantage in their personal record 6-3, winning both the games they've played on an enclosed hard court.
But … this is the surface on which Auger-Aliassime has claimed the majority of his titles, he is in great form after his impressive recovery against Ben Shelton on Wednesday and he defeated the German in the US Open third round in late summer. Furthermore, conditions are faster in Turin than at Flushing Meadows, which provides an additional advantage in Auger-Aliassime's favor.
If the German player is reserved, similar to his performance against the Italian, and the Canadian presses the German with his powerful serves and confident shots, there is a strong chance the 25-year-old Canadian – the former prodigy who was previously positioned before the younger champions to replace the Big Three – who obtains the questionable privilege of competing with the top-ranked player the next day.
Action commences: at around 20:30 in the host city, 19:30 Greenwich Mean Time.
