Sinner beats Bublik to reach Vienna Open semis
World number two Jannik Sinner progresses to the semi-finals of the Vienna Open with a dominant straight-set win over Alexander Bublik.
World number two Jannik Sinner progresses to the semi-finals of the Vienna Open with a dominant straight-set win over Alexander Bublik.
It was a mild September day in Lima, and south of the city centre, Peru’s Davis Cup team faced underdog status against Portugal. In front of a vocal home crowd, Ignacio Buse delivered the clinching blow, defeating Nuno Borges to close the tie in the stadium that carries his family name — Estadio Hermanos Buse (Buse Brothers Stadium), honouring his grandfather Eduardo and twin brother Enrique, who both were tennis players.
Eduardo competed at the majors as early as 1942, when he played on the grass courts of West Side Tennis Club in New York for the US National Championships. Ignacio never met his grandfather, but his legacy shaped a tennis tradition in the Buse family.
Although the stadium court at Club Lawn Tennis de la Exposición bears the family name, Buse began his journey across town at Country Club de Villa. He started alongside his father, Hans, a tennis coach who moved to Miami in 2019 and has since worked at Royal Palm Tennis Club.
“I always remember the best moments with my dad,” Buse told ATPTour.com. “Before we started practice, we played mini tennis and that was such a battle for me. Sometimes I was confused with the situation, sometimes getting pissed. My dad just wanted to practice and I was so happy playing mini tennis against him.”
Buse, World No. 111, is Peru’s top-ranked player in the PIF ATP Rankings. He competes mostly on the ATP Challenger Tour, the level at which he has captured two titles this year. His goal for 2025 was to finish inside the Top 150 — a quest he is on pace to achieve with flying colours.
As a teen, Buse climbed inside the junior Top 10 before facing a pivotal decision in 2022 of playing college tennis or turning pro. After struggling to secure a visa to attend school in the United States, Buse decided to chase pro tennis, a difficult challenge coming from a country that has had five players crack the Top 100 in PIF ATP Rankings history (since 1973).
“It was like a dream, but it never seemed realistic. I always saw it really far,” Buse said of playing pro tennis. “Then I wanted to go to college and when I couldn’t go to college — basically there was a problem with the residence — there I said, ‘Okay, I will go professional’, when I was 18.”
Buse made his Challenger debut in 2022 as a teenager ranked outside the Top 1,400. In his second appearance — a home outing in Lima — then-No. 886 Buse met top seed Federico Coria, a former Top 50 player. Buse pushed the match to a decider and ended the night with newfound confidence despite the loss.
“I was starting to believe in myself that I could do it,” he reflected.
Now based in Barcelona, Spain, Buse considers his father his greatest mentor. Having made his maiden Grand Slam appearance at this year’s US Open, where he fell to sixth seed Ben Shelton, Buse has come a long way. He is doing it all while holding true to the biggest lesson his parents taught him.
Ignacio Buse has left his mark in Seville ✍️#ATPChallenger | @CopaSevillaCh pic.twitter.com/WIwdw9HkV5
— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) September 6, 2025
“First of all, always be humble,” Buse said. “I learned it from my dad and mom also. I don’t think saying you’re humble means you are humble. You have to demonstrate with facts. It has to be natural.
“If you are known more in the world, that doesn’t mean you are above the others. That’s the most important thing. That’s why sometimes society is confused in those terms. I feel that we all have the same importance.”
Buse’s family extends this philosophy beyond tennis. His uncle, Gaston Acurio, is a world-renowned chef with restaurants worldwide and over one-million Instagram followers. Buse greatly admires Acurio and his values.
“He’s not my idol just because of how he cooks or whatever, but he always wants to help people,” Buse said. “He has a foundation in Peru for the people that want to be a chef who have no money. He helps him, forms them and then they work in a restaurant around the world.
“For me, what he does there is an example that he not only cares about the world, but also about humanity.”
With Christmas quickly approaching, Buse looks forward to a big family gathering and eating the delicious food that Acurio will make.
“It’s like an event,” Buse said. “He’s such an amazing chef. It’s always so delicious. He made all his recipes and a lot of his recipes came from his grandmother that I didn’t get to meet.”
Around the table with loved ones, Buse will be able to proudly reflect on his 2025 season.
“If you would have told me that today I would be at the ranking I am, I would tell you that I don’t believe you. I wanted to end in the Top 150, more or less,” Buse said. “It was the goal we set. I think the start of the year was not as we imagined, but we managed to keep improving, keep believing in the process.”
<img alt=”Ignacio Buse triumphs in Heilbronn – Bad Rappenau, Germany.” style=”width:100%” src=”/-/media/images/news/2025/06/09/13/35/buse-heilbronnch-2025.jpg” />
Ignacio Buse triumphs at the Heilbronn Challenger in June. Credit: Elias Hoh Media/NECKARCUP
Jannik Sinner and Alexander Bublik renewed their entertaining rivalry on Friday evening at the Erste Bank Open, where the top-seeded Italian prevailed 6-4, 6-4 to move within two wins of his fourth title of 2025.
Sinner lost to Bublik in Halle in June but has since put the 28-year-old to the sword. The World No. 2 dropped just three games en route to a fourth-round win at the US Open in September and was close to his best once again on Friday evening in Vienna.
The 24-year-old suffocated the World No. 16 with his relentless striking and achieved a performance rating of 9.23, which combines In Attack, Conversion, Steal and Shot Quality to show overall performance level. Sinner recorded a 9.61 performance rating in his 58-minute first-round win against Daniel Altmaier, which was his second-highest rating of the season. Sinner now leads Bublik 6-2 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series following his quarter-final win.
“It is a tough, a tough matchup. I am very happy,” Sinner said. “I tried to return as many balls as possible, I felt he was serving great today. I am happy I had some chances. Early in the first set I had some but I could not use them but I am happy I was able to stay there mentally. He is a very dangerous player but I tried to stay as solid as possible, so I am very happy.”
Sinner lifted the trophy in his previous appearance in Vienna in 2023 and is 15-4 at the event, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index. The 24-year-old has also won his past 19 indoor matches and will meet Alex de Minaur in the semi-finals.
The Australian overcame Matteo Berrettini 6-1, 7-6(4) to claim his 53rd win of the season. Only Carlos Alcaraz has recorded more victories on Tour in 2025. De Minaur has also reached four ATP 500 semi-finals this year, tying Alcaraz for the most appearances at that stage. The 26-year-old captured the ATP 500 title in Washington.
De Minaur recovered from squandering a match point on serve at 5-4 against Berrettini, eventually prevailing in the second-set tie-break to improve to 2-3 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with the Italian.
De Minaur is seventh in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, 500 points ahead of ninth-placed Felix Auger-Aliassime, who retired from his quarter-final match in Basel on Friday. De Minaur is chasing his second appearance at the Nitto ATP Finals.
One man who will be in Turin is Alexander Zverev. The two-time year-end champion sealed his spot by reaching the semi-finals in Vienna. The German did not even step onto court on Friday, with Tallon Griekspoor withdrawing ahead of the match due to a back injury.
Zverev is seeking his second title in Vienna, having won in 2021. The World No. 3 will play Lorenzo Musetti in the last four. Musetti closed the day with a 6-3, 6-4 victory against Corentin Moutet. Aiming for his maiden trip to the Nitto ATP Finals, Musetti currently holds the final qualifying spot at eighth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, just 60 points behind seventh-placed Alex de Minaur.
By defeating Moutet, Musetti captured a personal-best 41st win of the season. He will look to add to that count against Zverev, whom the Italian leads 3-1 in their Lexus ATP Head2Heaad series. Musetti beat Zverev in the Vienna quarter-finals last year 2-6, 7-6(5), 6-4.
Watch Extended Highlights from Friday in Vienna:
Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner now know their potential paths to a maiden Rolex Paris Masters crown — and perhaps, to a sixth consecutive showdown in a final.
World No. 1 Alcaraz returns to action for the first time in more than three weeks, opening his Paris campaign against Cameron Norrie or Sebastian Baez, following Friday’s official draw. Sinner, who is still alive in the Vienna semi-finals, will begin his run at La Défense Arena against Alex Michelsen or Zizou Bergs.
View the draw
The final ATP Masters 1000 event of the season promises high stakes, with potential major implications for the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin as players vie for the remaining spots at the Nitto ATP Finals.
Felix Auger-Aliassime and Casper Ruud could meet in a blockbuster third-round match. Auger-Aliassime is ninth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, currently just 410 points ahead of 11th-placed Ruud, who is still alive in Basel. Jack Draper, who is 10th, is not competing through the end of the season through injury.
Lorenzo Musetti, aiming to debut at the Nitto ATP Finals, sits in the final qualification spot at eighth. He begins his Paris campaign against a qualifier or special entry and is seeded to meet defending champion Alexander Zverev in the quarter-finals.
Fourth seed Taylor Fritz and sixth seed Alex de Minaur, both in strong contention to return to Turin, are seeded quarter-final opponents. Denis Shapovalov faces a rematch with #NextGenATP star Joao Fonseca in his opener, with the winner to face 2018 Paris champion Karen Khachanov.
Cousins Arthur Rinderknech and Valentin Vacherot, who were both present at the draw ceremony, could face each other in the second round. Vacherot, who defeated Rinderknech in the Shanghai final to become the lowest-ranked ATP Masters 1000 champion, faces 14th seed Jiri Lehecka.
Alcaraz and Sinner have met in the final in the past five tournaments where they have both competed, including their clash at the US Open, where Alcaraz prevailed in four sets to reclaim the World No. 1 spot for the first time since 2023. The Spaniard now leads Sinner 10-5 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series.
The 2025 edition of the Rolex Paris Masters is the first in its new venue, La Défense Arena, which is Europe’s largest indoor sports venue. Main-draw action runs from 27 October – 2 November.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]A new chapter of the Rolex Paris Masters has begun in its striking new home, and with it comes the arrival of the No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings.
Carlos Alcaraz touched down at La Défense Arena on Friday morning, gearing up for his first tour-level appearance since triumphing in Tokyo last month. Beanie on, buzz cut hidden from the brisk Paris air, the 22-year-old Spaniard surveyed the vast new venue before taking to the practice court alongside 2018 champion Karen Khachanov.
First practice in the new venue for Carlos Alcaraz and 2018 champion Karen Khachanov 🦾#RolexParisMasters pic.twitter.com/tXSGE0soMb
— ROLEX PARIS MASTERS (@RolexPMasters) October 24, 2025
During his Tokyo title run, Alcaraz sustained a left-ankle injury and subsequently missed the ATP Masters 1000 event in Shanghai. Earlier this week, he was back in his home town of El Palmar, Spain, training with his team in preparation for a return to Tour. Now, with a 5-4 record in Paris, including his best showing in 2022 when he reached the quarter-finals, the World No. 1 arrives with unfinished business.
Could the move to Europe’s largest indoor sports venue ignite his first French crown? The centre court at La Défense Arena can accommodate 17,500 spectators, which makes it the second-biggest tennis court for year-round events, behind only Arthur Ashe Stadium at the US Open.
The Rolex Paris Masters remains just one of three ATP Masters 1000 titles missing from Alcaraz’s glittering resume. Over the coming week, he will look to cross it off and tighten his grip on a potential second ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by PIF finish.
Already qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals, Alcaraz holds a lead of more than 2,000 points over rival Jannik Sinner atop the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin. Sinner is competing this week in Vienna, where he is into Friday’s quarter-finals.
Alcaraz boasts a Tour-leading 67 wins and eight titles in 2025, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index. In Paris, he is returning to indoor action for the first time since February, when he won his first trophy in these conditions at the ATP 500 in Rotterdam.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Two-time Nitto ATP Finals champion Alexander Zverev on Friday became the fourth singles player to qualify for the season finale when he advanced to the Vienna semi-finals with Tallon Griekspoor’s withdrawal.
Zverev, who has now qualified for the year-end championships eight times, joined Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic in the field at Inalpi Arena. The Nitto ATP Finals will take place from 9-16 November.
Zverev put himself in good position in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin early in the year by making the Australian Open final, his third championship match at a Grand Slam tournament.
The Hamburg native triumphed on home soil in Munich for the 24th ATP Tour title of his career, and he has now claimed at least one tour-level trophy in nine of the past 10 seasons. Zverev also made the final in Stuttgart and advanced to ATP Masters 1000 semi-finals in Toronto and Cincinnati.
The German first qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals in 2017 and has earned his place at the prestigious event in eight of the past nine seasons. He earned the crown in 2018 and 2021, and also made the semi-finals in 2019 and 2024.
According to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index, Zverev owns a 17-10 record at the year-end championships. He is 9-3 since the event relocated to Turin in 2021 and two of those defeats have come in final-set tie-breaks.
When Zverev claimed glory at the Nitto ATP Finals for the second time, in 2021, he became one of just two active singles players who has won the Nitto ATP Finals more than once, joining Djokovic.
Four singles places remain at the Nitto ATP Finals, with fifth-placed Fritz currently next in line to qualify.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Felix Auger-Aliassime’s Nitto ATP Finals hopes suffered a setback on Friday at the Swiss Indoors Basel, where he was forced to retire against Jaume Munar after losing the first set.
The Canadian was trailing 3-6 when he walked to the net and ended proceedings after 45 minutes of his quarter-final match at the ATP 500.
Auger-Aliassime lifted the trophy in Brussels last week to move to ninth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin. The 25-year-old, who married Nina Ghaibi last month, is 340 points behind eighth-placed Lorenzo Musetti, who occupies the final qualification spot. Musetti is in quarter-final action against Cornetin Moutet in Vienna later on Friday.
Auger-Aliassime is hoping to make his second appearance at the prestigious year-end event, having competed in 2022. He holds a 43-21 record on the year, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index and is scheduled to compete at the Rolex Paris Masters next week.
Joao Fonseca followed Auger-Aliassime and Munar onto court and overcame Denis Shapovalov, who also retired. Fonseca led the Canadian 3-6, 6-3, 4-1 when Shapovalov approached the Brazilian to shake hands.
Fonseca is into his second tour-level semi-final of the year and first at ATP 500 level. The 19-year-old won his maiden tour-level crown in Buenos Aires earlier this year and is now 23-15 on the season. Fonseca is the second-youngest semi-finalist this century and will play Munar on Saturday.
Ugo Humbert continued his impressive week with a 7-6(0), 6-4 win against American Reilly Opelka.
The 27-year-old Frenchman has won a Tour-leading 22 matches indoors since the start of 2024, a tally that includes two title runs in Marseille. He also reached championship matches in Paris last November and Stockholm last week.
Humbert will next play eighth seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. After the Spaniard took the opening set off Casper Ruud 7-6(1), the fourth-seeded Norwegian retired due to an ankle injury, sending Davidovich Fokina to his sixth semi-final of the season. Ruud was on a six-match winning streak, including a title run at last week’s ATP 250 in Stockholm.
Watch Extended Highlights from Friday in Basel:
The ATP has announced a record $32.4 million in ATP Challenger Tour prize money for the 2026 season, featuring an additional $5 million in singles compensation compared to 2025. Driven by the introduction of OneVision – ATP’s long-term strategic plan – Challenger Tour prize money has surged an unprecedented 167% since 2022.
Under OneVision, key drivers of growth have included the commercialisation of rights under Tennis Data Innovations (TDI), the introduction of premium Challenger 175 events, and the establishment of a dedicated Challenger Tour team to oversee new revenue streams.
In 2025, global expansion of media rights distribution – including a landmark partnership with Tennis Channel – has marked another significant investment into growing the game at this level. Events are now broadcast across 20 countries, driving record 33.8 million total viewership and reinforcing the Challenger Tour as an international platform to showcase the sport’s future stars.
Enhancements planned for 2026 include expanding the calendar from 216 to 265 events. With the addition of 50 new Challenger 50 tournaments, players will have greater opportunities to compete and progress, further strengthening the professional pathway to the ATP Tour.
ATP Chairman Andrea Gaudenzi said: “Challenger Tour prize money has nearly tripled since 2022. This is what OneVision was designed to do – create the foundation for investment in our sport to deliver greater financial security to more players. There’s more room to grow, and we’re working to unlock the opportunities to build on this progress.”
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Elena Rybakina clinches the last spot for next month’s WTA Finals by reaching the semi-finals of the Pan Pacific Open.