Turin, Nov 11 (IANS) Home favourite Jannik Sinner made a confident start to his ATP Finals title defense with a 7-5, 6-1 opening victory against an injury-hampered Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime.

With his one-hour, 41-minute victory, Sinner improved to 1-0 in Bjorn Borg Group. The 24-year-old Italian is now on a 27-match winning streak indoors and has not dropped a set at the ATP Finals since his 2023 final defeat to Novak Djokovic, ATP reports.

With his win at Inalpi Arena, Sinner also kept alive his chances of pipping Carlos Alcaraz for ATP Year-End No. 1. The Italian trails his rival by 1,050 points in the Live Rankings, with Alcaraz having begun his ATP Finals campaign by defeating Alex de Minaur on Sunday afternoon.

Sinner and Auger-Aliassime played out a hard-fought first set. The Canadian dug deep to fend off two break points at 3-2 and a set point at 5-4, but he was unable to deny Sinner a decisive break in a 12th game in which he also appeared to start feeling pain in his left leg after he served at 0/30.

Auger-Aliassime took an off-court medical time-out at the end of the first set and although he battled but was unable to recover from dropping serve in the second game of the second set. He also received treatment on his leg on court at 0-3, when he indicated to the physio that he was feeling pain in his left calf, and again at 1-4.

Sinner struck the ball cleanly throughout the match and he retained his focus throughout as Auger-Aliassime’s physical struggles played out across the net.

The second seed finished the match having won 89 per cent (32/36) of points behind his first serve, according to ATP Stats.

“I hope it‘s nothing too serious. I wish him obviously a very speedy recovery and hopefully he is back to 100 per cent physically,” Sinner said of Auger-Aliassime.

–IANS

bc/