Paris Masters: Auger-Aliassime first to reach last four

Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, the No 9 seed, defeated Monégasque wildcard Valentin Vacherot 6-2, 6-2 to advance to the semi-finals of Paris Masters at the Paris La Défense Arena on Friday afternoon.

“FAA” is the second man to reach 10 semi-finals this season on Tour after Alcaraz (11). He is now one win away from the eigth spot at the ATP Rankings.

The Canadian was imperious on serve. He only had to cancel two break points at 6-2, 5-2 for him. He won 89% of the points on his first serve and 75% on his second serve.

“It was my first match on the center court. Throughout that match, I managed to feel better. I tried to focus on my own game, and this is what I did. Everything that was in my control I actually could roll out, and sometimes I had good ideas and I managed to implement that. This time, my option A worked actually, and I could manage to roll this out until the end.”

One more match for the 8th ATP RANKING

Auger-Aliassime, ranked No 10, will play the winner of the match between Kazakh Alexander Bublik, the No 13 seed, and Australian Alex De Minaur, the No 6 seed, next.

The Canadian is still in the loop for a qualification at the ATP Finals after his win against German Daniel Altmaier (3-6, 6-3, 6-2), Frenchman Alexandre Muller (5-7, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4)) and Argentinian qualifier Francisco Comesana (6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-3) on the way.

For Vacherot, ranked No 40 and winner at Shanghai earlier this month, this is the end of an incredible run of 10 wins at the Masters 1000 level. He won against Englishman Cameron Norrie (7-6 (4), 6-4), his French cousin Arthur Rinderknech (6-7 (9), 6-3, 6-4) and Czech Jiri Lehecka, the No 14 seed (6-1, 6-3).

Paris Masters 1000, other last 8 results (La Défense Arena, hard, EUR 6.128.940, most recent results first):

• Daniil Medvedev vs. Alexander Zverev : Match 4, Friday
• Ben Shelton vs. Jannik Sinner : Match 3, Friday
• Alexander Bublik vs. Alex De Minaur : Match 2, Friday