Paris (The Hawk): At the Paris Masters on Friday, world number one Carlos Alcaraz was playing Holger Rune when he withdrew due to injury. His fellow 19-year-old advanced to the semi-finals, and Novak Djokovic and Felix Auger-Aliassime also guaranteed their spots in the last four.
Rune outplayed Alcaraz to take the first set 6-3. Rune then held strong in the second set as the top seed stepped up his game. At 6-5 in the tiebreak, Alcaraz quit after suffering an abdominal strain and retiring at a 3-1 deficit.
I'm unable to stretch. Alcaraz remarked, "I couldn't hit the forehand well, and I couldn't serve properly." "I preferred to retire and take care of it and watch it,"
Despite the short recuperation period, Alcaraz was optimistic that he would be ready to make his debut at the ATP Finals in Turin, which get underway on November 13.
He continued, "I have some tests on how it's going to be before Turin. But at the moment, my attention is on improving my abdominal strength and striving to perform at my peak in Turin.
Holder and sixth seed Novak Djokovic easily defeated Italian qualifier Lorenzo Musetti with a score of 6-0 6-3. Djokovic will now face fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, who easily defeated American Tommy Paul with a score of 6-2 6-4 in around 77 minutes.
Djokovic, a six-time champion in Paris, gave Musetti a 24-minute bagel and dropped just eight games in the opening set before overcoming a small hiccup in the second set when he fell behind by a break to win easily.
Rune, a 19-year-old from Denmark, defeated Hubert Hurkacz and Andrey Rublev to advance to his maiden ATP Masters 1000 semi-final and achieve his third top-10 victory in as many days. Rune is attempting to make four consecutive final appearances.
In a matchup between two of the Tour's most in-form players and a rematch of the Canadian's straight-set victory in the Swiss Indoors final in Basel five days ago, he will face the eighth seed Auger-Aliassime.
After cruising to a 6-1 6-4 victory over Frances Tiafoe, Auger-Aliassime extended his winning streak to 16 games. He is now on pace to win his fourth ATP title in as many weeks after also triumphing in Florence and Antwerp during this unbeaten streak.
The 22-year-old won the opening set with ease, but Tiafoe fought back to hold serve and stave off five match points until Auger-Aliassime claimed the triumph after 93 minutes on his sixth try.
Auger-Aliassime declared, "I feel better and better. Of sure, I'm playing well and feeling good right now, but I can still perform better and get better in order to win the game.
(Inputs from Agencies)