How Félix Auger-Aliassime rediscovered his tennis mojo and reached the ATP Tour Finals last four

TURIN, Italy — In a year so dominated by two players, feel-good stories have felt a little hard to come by elsewhere in men’s tennis.

There was Valentin Vacherot’s fairy-tale run to the Shanghai Masters title as a qualifier, and the mercurial Alexander Bublik enjoying a late push for the ATP Tour Finals, but little right at the top end of the sport. Aside from Novak Djokovic’s astounding, if understandably overshadowed, achievement of reaching all four Grand Slam semifinals the year he turned 38.

Friday’s victory for Félix Auger-Aliassime over Alexander Zverev might not end up being hugely significant, but the Canadian’s resurgence this year has been an unequivocally positive story for one of the chasing pack behind Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. And by beating the world No. 3 6-4, 7-6(4) to reach the ATP Tour Finals last four, Auger-Aliassime can end a fine year ranked world No. 5, or even higher.

It is some turnaround for a player who started 2025 ranked No. 29, and was seen for a long while as irrelevant when it came to the Race to Turin. That was before he reached the U.S. Open semifinals in September and took a set off Sinner once there.

In beating Zverev, Auger-Aliassime showed the qualities that have made him such a compelling watch, this year and when he first emerged in the early 2020s. The big serves, down break point at 2-2 and 4-4 in the first set; the two huge forehand winners as he broke to pinch the first set.

It felt reminiscent of his previous match, a tight three-set win over Ben Shelton on Wednesday, after which the American said: “(He) executed in the big moments. That’s where I didn’t execute.” Auger-Aliassime had to execute in more big moments Friday, like midway through the second set when he saved two break points with big first serves having just missed a couple of break point chances of his own. In the tiebreak, he hit a nerveless smash for 5-4, before some heavy, deep groundstrokes won the next two points and the match.

Auger-Aliassime’s freedom on court stands out because of how at odds it is with so many of his rivals at this event. There has otherwise been a feeling of melancholy, or worse, around most of the qualifiers other than Alcaraz and Sinner. Zverev is the world No. 3, but is in a miserable spot as he battles poor form and injury — this latest loss another example of how far he is from the two players ranked above him. Taylor Fritz exited the event with a defeat to Alex de Minaur, a couple of days after he said that his “knee is completely cooked,” which itself followed another loss to Alcaraz in which he played out of his skin for no reward.

“I don’t know how guys don’t enjoy it, to be honest,” Auger-Aliassime said in his news conference.

“I think they lost perspective completely. I get that you can get tired. I’m tired, too. I do trips around and I go see different circumstances around the world. I mean, we’re just lucky and blessed.

“In my humble opinion, every day I wake up and I enjoy. I enjoy that I’m here. Even if I lose matches, it’s okay, I’m pissed for a day.”

Félix Auger-Aliassime is climbing back up after what he called a “tough couple of years.” (Clive Brunskill / Getty Images)

De Minaur may be in the semifinals, but he got there after losing his first two matches, the second of which sent him spiraling into self-flagellation. “It’s getting to a point where mentally it’s killing me,” he said in his news conference after serving for the match but losing to Lorenzo Musetti. “I think it’s probably a good thing I don’t express my feelings right now because they’re quite dark,” he added.

Sitting in the same room after beating Fritz on Thursday, he said that the Musetti loss two days earlier “was one of the toughest days I’ve had in my career.” Such an upbeat figure usually, who should be proudly reflecting on a year that could see him end in the top five, de Minaur has spent much of 2025 looking physically and mentally exhausted.

A description that would be entirely apt also for Musetti, who spoke last month of the “nightmare” he was enduring desperately trying to qualify for the ATP Tour Finals. He got there at the very last minute, after Djokovic withdrew, but he exited at the group stage and promptly pulled out of the Davis Cup finals. Shelton was likewise unable to escape the round-robin stage, losing all three of his matches. He’s still finding his way back after a shoulder injury ended his U.S. Open bid in the third round. Shelton said Friday that he had “played one good match” since he returned last month from that injury, and that he is searching for his tennis identity once again.

Auger-Aliassime, 25, had spent the previous couple of years on a similar search. Hyped as one of the potential future stars of the sport, Auger-Aliassime initially made good on his early promise by reaching the U.S. Open semifinals in 2021 and then climbing to a career-high ranking of No. 6 the following year. He ended that 2022 season by appearing at the ATP Tour Finals for the first time, before winning the Davis Cup with Canada.

Then came what Auger-Aliassime described at this year’s U.S. Open as a “tough couple of years.” He lost in the first round of five of the eight majors in 2023 and 2024, suddenly looking one-dimensional. Blessed with exceptional movement, Auger-Aliassime was struggling to use his serve and forehand to dominate matches as he had done previously. He said that he struggled tactically, and with his confidence, throughout much of this period.

Knee and back injuries didn’t help either, prompting Auger-Aliassime to bring in a new fitness coach a couple of years ago. He said this year that getting to know his body better over time has helped, too, and having an understanding of when to say enough is enough. Last week he pulled out of the Hellenic Championship having just reached the Paris Masters final, even though there was a risk that doing so might scupper his place in Turin.

The turnaround started at the beginning of this year, when Auger-Aliassime won the Adelaide International. He won the Occitanie Open in Montpellier a few weeks later, but they were bright spots in an otherwise quiet season through August, with the Canadian winning only two matches in the first three majors of the year.

At the U.S. Open, he would win five. After beating Zverev in New York, to reach the fourth round, Auger-Aliassime stressed that any improvements in his results were simply the result of hard work.

“A performance like this doesn’t fall out of the sky, but you never know also when you’re going to play that level on any given day,” he said in a news conference.

Auger-Aliassime then beat two top-15 players, one of them de Minaur in a match that the Australian described as a “wasted opportunity,” to set up that semifinal with Sinner.

Since losing that match in a tight four-setter, in which he had his chances to force a decider, Auger-Aliassime has gotten married and finished the year strongly enough to qualify for the ATP Tour Finals. Once here, he has taken his chance — beating Shelton and Zverev in consecutive matches to set up a semifinal against Alcaraz on Saturday, the latest player to try to thwart the world No. 1’s duopoly with Sinner.

But in a men’s season so consumed by that duo, Auger-Aliassime has been a welcome subplot — one of the most universally liked players on the tour finding his mojo again.