Felix Auger-Aliassime celebrates after his final match against Holger Rune of Denmark during day nine of the Swiss Indoor Basel at St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland, on Oct. 30.Daniel Kopatsch/Getty Images
Félix Auger-Aliassime won his third straight title in October, beating Holger Rune 6-3, 7-5 in the Swiss Indoors final on Sunday.
He will be ranked No. 8 in the world on Monday.
Auger-Aliassime went through his five matches at Basel without dropping serve, and he saved all three break points Rune had.
The ninth-ranked Auger-Aliassime added the Basel title to wins in the past two weeks at Florence, Italy, and Antwerp, Belgium. He extended his winning streak to 13 matches.
The 22-year-old Canadian shares the same Aug. 8 birthday with Swiss great Roger Federer who had intended to return to tournament play at his hometown event. Federer announced his retirement last month at age 41 because of persistent knee injuries.
“I actually thought about him this morning, and thought how cool it would be if I win here, where he won 10 times,” Auger-Aliassime said of Federer.
Every winner of the Swiss Indoors from 2006 up to this edition also has a U.S. Open title. The others are Novak Djokovic, Juan Martin del Potro — who both had to beat Federer in their finals — and Marin Cilic.
“I’m very far from that, but it’s so cool to have my name with all these great champions at this prestigious tournament,” said Auger-Aliassime, who beat the current U.S. Open champion, top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz, on Saturday in the semi-finals.
The combined age of Auger-Aliassime and the 19-year-old Rune added up to the same 41 years as Federer.
Auger-Aliassime improved his career record in finals to 4-9 with all four titles won this year at indoor hard-court events in Europe.
Shapovalov falls in Vienna Open final
VIENNA — Canada’s Denis Shapovalov fell short of winning his first title of the year losing 6-4, 3-6, 2-6 to Daniil Medvedev in the Vienna Open final on Sunday.
Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., won 78 per cent of his first-serve points and broke on three of his nine opportunities. The 23-year-old also fired six aces but committed six double faults in the loss.
It is the second runner-up finish for Shapovalov within the month. He fell to Yoshihito Nishioka at the Korea Open on Oct. 2.
Despite Sunday’s loss, Shapovalov is set to move up three spots to No. 16 in the ATP rankings.
The Canadian Press