Taylor Fritz and Jannik Sinner advanced to the ATP Finals championship match in vastly different ways, and will meet for the title on Sunday.
Fritz moved up to No. 4 in the Live Rankings after clawing past No. 2 Alexander Zverev 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(3) in the first semifinal.
The American is into his fifth final of the season, and will face world No. 1 Sinner, who cruised past Casper Ruud 6-1, 6-2 to reach the title match for the second consecutive year. He lost to Novak Djokovic in straight sets a year ago.
Sinner is 3-1 against Fritz, including a straight-sets win in the U.S. Open final in September, and a straight-sets win in round robin play in Turin. The Italian has won 25 of his last 26 matches.
If he wins Sunday, he would claim $4,881,500 as an undefeated champion.
Against Zverev, Fritz struck 32 winners and became the first player to break Zverev’s serve this week en route to his dramatic two-hour, 20-minute triumph. Fritz has now won his past four matches against Zverev, who made three critical errors in the third-set tie-break, and leads the German 7-5 in their head-to-head.
“I felt like I played an almost perfect first set, but things can change so quickly when you’re playing someone like Sascha,” Fritz said. “I found myself in some tough spots in the third, when we both started to get on each other’s serves even more.
“When I was trying to be aggressive I didn’t feel like it was doing much. I just told myself at the end that I had to fight and be solid and tried to take care of my serve the best I could and give him absolutely nothing from the back.”
Sinner lost to Djokovic in the final a year ago but won two major titles in 2024 at the Australian Open and the U.S. Open. He also became the first Italian in history to rise to No. 1 in the ATP Rankings.