Turin (Italy), Nov 12 Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada came up with a powerful performance and mental fortitude for a thrilling comeback win over Ben Shelton in the ATP Finals on Wednesday. The 25-year-old Auger-Aliassime came within two points of defeat in a tense second-set tie-break, but rallied with grit to seal a 4-6, 7-6(7), 7-5 victory after two hours, 25 minutes in Turin.
Although Shelton’s relentless serve-and-volley pressure posed constant challenges, Auger-Aliassime stayed composed to notch his Tour-leading 20th deciding-set win of the season. “He was playing much better than me at the start,” Auger-Aliassime was quoted as saying by the ATP Tour in a report. “It’s not often that I get broken twice in the first set indoors… It was a weird start, but as the match went on, I was finding ways to put returns in the court. Once we engaged in the rallies, I felt like I could win more. You just have to fight, believe, and play the next point the right way.”
With the victory, Auger-Aliassime keeps alive his hopes of reaching the semifinals at the prestigious season finale for the first time. Having fallen to defending champion Jannik Sinner in his opener, he now sits at 1-1 in the Bjorn Borg Group and will face third seed Alexander Zverev in his final round-robin match on Friday.
There were concerns over Auger-Aliassime’s physical state after he suffered an injury scare during his defeat to Sinner, but he silenced those doubts as he moved freely against Shelton. It was, in fact, the American who took a tumble in the second-set tie-break, in which he threw in a costly double fault on set point to offer Auger-Aliassime a route back in.
“I felt great, physically. We recovered well, did the right things,” said Auger-Aliassime after his win. “Today I was able to play two-and-a-half hours of high-intensity tennis. I have to give him credit; he kept coming up with great serves. When the opponent plays that well, you have to give him credit, but also to myself for staying cool,” he said.
Auger-Aliassime, the No. 8 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, has been a proven threat on indoor hard courts over the years, tallying a record 84 wins in these conditions this decade, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index. Once he levelled the score against Shelton, he found his groove on serve and ultimately found a way through to improve to 2-0 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series.
Shelton will be left to rue missed opportunities as he slips to 0-2 in the Bjorn Borg Group on his debut at the season finale. He lost five consecutive points from 6/3 in the second-set tie-break against Zverev in his first match and hit a series of crucial unforced errors at a similar moment against Auger-Aliassime.
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