Jannik Sinner moved to within one win of reclaiming the world number one ranking with a 6-0, 6-1 dismantling of an ailing Alexander Zverev in the Paris Masters semi-finals on Saturday, setting up a final clash with Felix Auger-Aliassime. The Italian raced to a remarkable thrashing of reigning champion Zverev at La Defense Arena in just 61 minutes. “I saw it straight away from the first couple of points that he was struggling physically,” the 24-year-old Sinner said after a fourth straight win over Zverev.
“It’s not the way you want to win a match but at the same time for me personally I’m happy to be in the final, it means a lot.”
Sinner will replace rival Carlos Alcaraz at the top of the rankings if he beats Auger-Aliassime on Sunday.
Canada’s Auger-Aliassime reached the second Masters 1000 final of his career by beating in-form Kazakh Alexander Bublik in the first semi-final.
Sinner and Auger-Aliassime have split their four previous meetings, although the world number two has won the past two including in this year’s US Open semi-finals.
“It’s always good to play him,” Auger-Aliassime said of facing Sinner.
“I feel like he pushes players to be very, very disciplined tactically and to execute their game almost perfectly in order to win.”
Four-time Grand Slam champion Sinner is now on a 25-match winning streak on indoor hard courts.
He is targeting his fifth title of the season after last weekend adding the Vienna Open trophy to his Australian Open, Wimbledon and China Open triumphs from earlier in the year.
“It’s going to be a tough match, Felix loves to play indoors, like I do,” Sinner said ahead of his ninth final of the season.
Third seed Zverev made a dreadful start Saturday, with his forehand badly misfiring.
Sinner needed just 15 minutes to take a double-break and a 3-0 lead, sealed by a crushing cross-court winner.
Another wild forehand saw Zverev broken for a third successive service game, before Sinner wrapped up a bagel set with an ace.
It was the first time Zverev, who mustered just one winner in the opener, had lost a set to love since the 2023 French Open semi-finals against Casper Ruud.
The German showed some resilience in the first game of the second set, though, staving off a break point as he finally got on the board.
But the resistance was short-lived, as Sinner broke in the third game when Zverev ballooned another groundstroke long.
Zverev called for the trainer but his race had long been run.
Sinner completed the demolition when a Zverev dumped another shot into the net.