Defending champ Auger-Aliassime advances to Swiss Indoors final

BASEL, Switzerland — Montreal's Felix Auger-Aliassime will get a chance to defend his championship at the Swiss Indoors tennis event on Sunday.

Auger-Aliassime advanced to the title game with a 6-3, 6-2 semifinal win over top seed Holger Rune of Denmark on Saturday.

The six-seeded Auger-Aliassime used a strong service game — firing five aces and winning 82 per cent of his first serves— to make short work of world No. 6 Rune.

Auger-Aliassime conceded only two break chances, both in the second set when he already led 5-2.

The semifinal, which lasted just 82 minutes, was a rematch of last year's final, which Auger-Aliassime won 6-3, 7-5.

Auger-Aliassime's opponent on Sunday will be Poland's Hubert Hurkacz, who downed France's Ugo Humbert 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 in Saturday's other semifinal.

The two players have met three times before, with Auger-Aliassime winning twice.

The 23-year-old Auger-Aliassime won four ATP tournaments, including the Swiss Indoors, in 2022, but he has yet to win a title this year and his world ranking has dropped from a career-high sixth to 19th.

Hurkacz, 26, will be looking for his eighth career title and his third in 2023.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 28, 2023.