With the 2022 ATP Finals right around the corner, players that are ranked from fifth to ninth place in the Race Rankings started a fight for the last three places.
So far, Rafael Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz, Casper Ruud, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Novak Djokovic all qualified for the 2022 ATP Finals. With five players having their spot secured, there are three more spots left but five players that have a really high chance of getting one of them.
Russians Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev are in the pole position to get two of the three spots, but Taylor Fritz, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Hubert Hurkacz are all within 160 points and will most likely fight for the last eighth spot.
And the Canadian, who is the first-seeded at the 2022 Florence Open showed that he really wants to fight for his spot. In the second round of the event, he took on Oscar Otte, who couldn't stop world no. 13 from reaching quarterfinals in Italy.
Despite facing four break points in the first set, Auger-Aliassime didn't lose his serve and was ruthless when he had a chance to break. Therefore, after 49 minutes, he was able to win the first set 6-4 and head into the second with a well-needed advantage.
This time, it was the young Canadian who got the first break, but he couldn't use his advantage and got broken back. In the seventh and eighth game, players traded breaks again and it seemed that everything was heading to a tie-break.
That's what eventually happened but this time, Auger-Aliassime couldn't hold his nerves and lost the tie-break 2-7 and had to fight in yet another set in front of the crowd in Florence.
However, after giving his opponent a chance to come back into the match in the second set, Auger-Aliassime dominated in the third to win 6-4, 6-7(2) 6-2 and set up a quarterfinal clash with Brandon Nakashima.
0 Comments