TURIN: Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime came from a set down to earn his first victory at this year’s ATP Finals with a 4-6, 7-6(7), 7-5 win over American Ben Shelton on Wednesday.

Shelton’s service-and-volley game powered him to the opening set but Auger-Aliassime forced a decider with a tiebreak victory in the second and then broke the American’s serve to convert a third match point in the final set.

Both players had lost their opening round-robin matches, Shelton beaten by Alexander Zverev and Auger-Aliassime by defending champion Jannik Sinner.

The Canadian has given himself a real chance of making the semi-finals with a hard-fought win. Auger-Aliassime needed medical treatment during his loss to Sinner, but the Canadian brushed off those worries, despite Shelton storming to a 4-1 lead in the opening set.

The American lost his cool when failing to serve out for the set, launching his racket in frustration when Auger-Aliassime made it 5-4, but Shelton broke the Canadian again.

“He was playing much better than me at the start,” Auger-Aliassime said. “It’s not often that I get broken twice in the first set indoors.”

Shelton forced the only break point of the second set, but in the tiebreak Auger-Aliassime broke immediately to take a 3-0 lead.

The American hurt his knee when attempting a quick change of direction, limping through the rest of the tiebreak, but managed to save three set points before a double fault ended his valiant effort. Shelton did not need any medical attention.

The Canadian held break points at 2-1 up in the final set but had to wait until the final game where Shelton was guilty of gifting match points, and Auger-Aliassime did not refuse.

“It was a weird start, but as the match went on I was finding ways to put returns in the court,” the Canadian added. “Once we engaged in the rallies, I felt like I could win more.”

Late on Tuesday, Italian Lorenzo Musetti was the last man to arrive for the ATP Finals and came close to being the first man to exit, but, backed by the Turin crowd, he made a remarkable comeback from the brink to defeat Alex de Minaur 7-5, 3-6, 7-5.

Musetti missed out on ATP Finals qualification when he lost to Novak Djokovic in Athens on Saturday but was drafted in to make his debut when the Serbian withdrew.

He had little time to recover before Monday’s 6-3 6-4 loss to last year’s finalist Taylor Fritz, and was back in action again on Tuesday knowing defeat would bring elimination.

Musetti took the first set without conceding a break point and had De Minaur on the rails in the second set opener only for the Australian to survive and go on to force a decider.

The Italian’s loss to Djokovic took almost three hours, and was the third three-setter Musetti had played last week in Athens. A third set against De Minaur seemed one too many when the Australian took a 2-0 lead.

The Italian crowd roared on encouragement at every point won by Musetti, and even some that were lost, like when De Minaur hung on to win a 31-shot rally, holding serve to go 5-3 up.

Musetti pulled out a cheeky through-the-legs shot, but De Minaur, falling backwards, somehow won the point and both players collapsed to the floor.

It looked like Musetti had lost his chance, but he went on to win the next four games and claim the match, beating his chest after winning dramatic points and rallying the crowd who needed little encouragement.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2025