The world number one, Carlos Alcaraz, retired with an injury against Holger Rune at the Paris Masters on Friday, sending his fellow 19-year-old through to the semi-finals.
After winning the first set 6-3, Rune was 3-1 ahead in the second-set tie-break when Alcaraz withdrew, having received medical treatment for an abdominal strain at 6-5. “I cannot stretch. I couldn’t serve well, I couldn’t hit the forehand well,” said Alcaraz afterwards. “I preferred to retire and see [the injury] and take care of it.”
Alcaraz is hopeful of making a full recovery for his debut at the ATP Finals in Turin, which begin on 13 November. “I have some tests on how it’s going to be before Turin,” he added. “But right now I’m focused on trying to get better, to be at 100%.”
Danish teenager Rune will face Félix Auger-Aliassime in a battle between two of the Tour’s most in-form players and a rematch of the Swiss Indoors final in Basel five days ago, which the Canadian won in straight sets. Auger-Aliassime extended his winning run to 16 matches with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Frances Tiafoe to remain on track for a fourth ATP title in as many weeks.
The 22-year-old cruised through the first set but Tiafoe dug deep to hold serve and saved five match points before Auger-Aliassime, who has also won titles in Florence and Antwerp recently, sealed a 93-minute victory on his sixth attempt.
“I feel better and better,” Auger-Aliassime said. “Of course right now I’m playing well and feeling good, but I see things that I can still do better and still improve on to be able to top the game.”
Noval Djokovic made light work of the Italian youngster Lorenzo Musetti in a 6-0, 6-3 win and will next meet Stefanos Tsitsipas or Tommy Paul, who play later on Friday.
The defending champion, a six-times winner in Paris, served Musetti a 24-minute bagel in the first, dropped only eight points. Djokovic then overcame a brief wobble in the second set, recovering quickly from a break down to close out victory.
