Sinner reaches eighth final of season in Vienna
Italian top seed Jannik Sinner beats Australian Alex de Minaur 6-3 6-4 at the Vienna Open to reach his eighth final of the season.
Italian top seed Jannik Sinner beats Australian Alex de Minaur 6-3 6-4 at the Vienna Open to reach his eighth final of the season.
Wales’ Mimi Xu secures her place in the final of the Wrexham Open following victory over Lily Miyazaki in an all-British semi-final.
Joao Fonseca ticked off another glittering milestone in his breakout 2025 season on Saturday at the Swiss Indoors Basel.
The 19-year-old overcame a topsy-turvy semi-final clash with Jaume Munar to prevail 7-6(4), 7-5 and reach his first ATP 500 final. Fonseca rallied from a 2-4 deficit in the second set and fired 39 winners en route to becoming the first Brazilian to reach a final at this level since the series’ introduction in 2009.
🇧🇷 FONSEQUISMO MAGIC IN BASEL 🇧🇷
Joao Fonseca breaks new ground, advancing to his maiden ATP 500 final with a 7-6(4) 7-5 victory over Munar!#SwissIndoorsBasel pic.twitter.com/vzUOCVCorN
— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 25, 2025
“I knew that it was going to be a tough match, Jaume is playing [well] on this surface,” said Fonseca. “He’s putting a lot of pressure, and you need to defend a lot of the time. I don’t like playing against those guys because I like to play aggressive and go for winners.
“I’m happy with how I stayed mentally after an early break in the second set. I’m very happy, so let’s stay hyped for the final.”
Fonseca will have the chance to add a second ATP Tour trophy to his collection when he takes on Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in Sunday’s final at the indoor hard-court event. The #NextGenATP star triumphed in Buenos Aires in February for his first trophy.
With his victory, Fonseca is up 12 spots to No. 34 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, ensuring a new career high on Monday.
“It’s been an amazing year, starting at No. 130 in the world, now 40-something and into a first ATP 500 final,” said Fonseca, who is 24-15 on the year, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index. “We didn’t go to Asia this year, I was a little bit sick. I was working with my mentality and I’m getting the opportunities… I’m just very happy to be here.”
Fonseca defeated defending champion Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in the first round and has since displayed a consistent level this week. But he saved his best for a scintillating semi-final outing against Munar, despite trailing by a break in the second set.
The fearless shotmaking that has become a defining feature of the Brazilian’s rise was on full display throughout the one-hour, 56-minute clash, after which he improved to 1-0 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Munar.
Davidovich Fokina advanced to the final later on Saturday when Ugo Humbert retired with the Spaniard leading 7-6(4), 3-1. The eighth seed is the fifth man to reach four tour-level finals this season, joining Carlos Alcaraz (10), Jannik Sinner (8), Felix Auger-Aliassime (4) and Alexander Bublik (4).
The lone seeded player in the Basel semi-finals, Davidovich Fokina is the second Spanish finalist in tournament history, after Rafael Nadal in 2015. He will seek his first tour-level trophy in his fifth final, having missed out on three championship points in his most recent title match, against Alex de Minaur in Washington.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Another tournament, another final for Jannik Sinner.
The No. 2 player in the PIF ATP Rankings swept past Alex de Minaur 6-3, 6-4 Saturday to reach the championship match at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna. By making his eighth final of the year, the Italian became the first man to reach that many finals in back-to-back seasons since Novak Djokovic in 2015-16.
“[I] came here quite late to the tournament, tried to take every day in the best possible way and I’m happy to be here in the final,” Sinner said in his post-match interview. “It was not easy to [reach] the final here, so I’m very happy.”
Sinner entered the semi-finals having not faced a break point in his first three matches at the ATP 500. Although the Italian lost serve twice against the Australian, he never panicked and set a clash for the trophy against second seed Alexander Zverev or fourth seed Lorenzo Musetti.
It was always going to be a tough test for De Minaur, who walked on court with an 0-11 Lexus ATP Head2Head record against Sinner. When the top seed broke in his first return game of the match, it was clear De Minaur had a big mountain to climb.
“[I was] trying to play some good tennis, trying to serve very well. The first set was very physical, so I’m happy that I won in two sets today,” Sinner said. “He changed a couple of things, which I was ready for today.
“I don’t want to say [what]. He knows. He knows for sure. He knows what to do, how to put [me] under pressure and the moment when you don’t serve very well, you have to play every ball and every point. He can get very physical, he changed up with the slice a bit with also the slice down the line today and opening the court. Many small things he has changed.”
The third seed produced some stunning shotmaking and used his blazing speed to try to fend off Sinner and his unrelenting power baseline game. But the Australian struggled to do enough damage with his serve, winning only 52 per cent of his first-serve points, according to Infosys ATP Stats.
“Generally I’m happy how I handled [the match]. I was a break up in the second, broke him back, tried to stay there mentally,” Sinner said. “Very happy about today’s performance and always happy again to be in the final.”
Without facing that pressure, Sinner was able to swing freely to work his way into another final. After winning titles at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and Beijing this season, he will try to add another trophy to his collection Sunday.
JANNIK. BUILT. DIFFERENT. 🤖
Sinner clinches his 20th straight indoor hard court win to reach his 8th final of the season! 👏@ErsteBankOpen | #ErsteBankOpen | @janniksin pic.twitter.com/3c17dnXQkL
— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 25, 2025
Sinner has made the final in eight of the 10 tournaments he has played in 2025, with the only exceptions being Halle and Shanghai. The 24-year-old is also trying to keep alive his hopes of earning ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by PIF honours, with Carlos Alcaraz in firm control of that battle.
Sinner has not lost a set this year in Vienna and now owns a 16-4 record at the tournament. He lifted the trophy in his most recent appearance, in 2023.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]You can’t wipe the smile off Grigor Dimitrov’s face these days.
After three long months on the sidelines due to a pectoral injury, the 34-year-old Bulgarian is finally back in action at the Rolex Paris Masters this week — and you can feel his relief radiating throughout La Défense Arena.
“There are a lot of good and mixed feelings in the most positive way, but it’s nice to be back with the boys and starting to challenge each other again,” Dimitrov told ATPTour.com. “It’s been a good week for me so far, trying to get as many hours as possible on the court because this is what I’ve craved. At the same time, I’m also trying to keep things at the most basic stuff.
“Of course, my goal is coming back to full force next year, but it’s a great challenge for me right now just to see how the body will respond.”
He’s BAAAACK !!!#RolexParisMasters | #Dimitrov pic.twitter.com/elSuGLjKpK
— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 24, 2025
Dimitrov’s last appearance was at Wimbledon, where he produced some of his most inspired tennis to forge a two-sets-to-love lead against then-World No. 1 Jannik Sinner in the fourth round. He seemed destined for the quarter-finals, but it was heartbreak all over again, with the Bulgarian suffering his fifth consecutive exit at a major through retirement.
The sight of his tears said more than any press conference could. But as he returns to the bright lights in Paris, where he reached the final in 2023, Dimitrov is back to his joyous self.
The former No. 3 player in the PIF ATP Rankings practised with good friend Andrey Rublev on Friday night and then returned less than 12 hours later to train with Francisco Cerundolo.
“I’ve always loved these last tournaments of the year,” said Dimitrov, the 2017 Nitto ATP Finals champion. “Overall, I’m not trying to overthink anything right now, just trying to be as kind as possible to me, to my body, and to test myself to really see what else I need to be working on, especially coming into the next season.”
Whether it be physical or otherwise, Dimitrov is hoping for a week free of pain. But the emotions will run high regardless. He will take to the doubles court alongside five-time major winner Nicolas Mahut, who is playing the final tournament of his career.
For both men, it promises to be a poignant chapter. One making an anticipated return to ATP Tour action, the other taking his final bow.
“We always wanted to do a few double sessions together throughout the last years, but I was honestly never really able to commit,” Dimitrov said of Mahut. “It was the right time. It was the last tournament for him and it made sense. I have a very sentimental relationship with him.
“For so many years, we played against each other. We competed more than once on such a big occasion. So it’s safe to say that it’s a good ending for him.”
In his singles bid, Dimitrov faces a stern opening test against big-serving Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard. The Bulgarian, however, boasts a 24-12 tournament record, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index, which includes that spirited 2023 run.
Whatever the outcome, one thing is certain: Grigor Dimitrov is back where he belongs — smiling, competing and writing another chapter in his story.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Elena Rybakina pulls out of her Pan Pacific Open semi-final a day after securing her spot in the season-ending WTA Finals.
From the thunderous serves of Boris Becker and graceful volleys of Stefan Edberg in the 1980s and 1990s, to the relentless baseline dominance of today’s ATP Tour stars like Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev, the Rolex Paris Masters has long been a proving ground for ATP No. 1 Club members.
Since the tournament welcomed a new identity in 1986, nine different ATP No. 1 Club members have combined for 21 trophies at the indoor hard-court event. This year, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner will be among the favourites to join that elite list.
Djokovic, whose 428 total weeks atop the PIF ATP Rankings leads the ATP No. 1 Club, owns a record seven titles at the tournament. His most recent Paris triumph, in 2023, marked his record-extending 40th Masters 1000 crown. “This win is definitely one of the most special wins in the Masters 1000 category,” the Serbian said at the time.
Medvedev is among the ATP No. 1 Club members in the Paris field this year and the 29-year-old is in form following a title run in Almaty, his first trophy in more than two years. The 21-time tour-level titlist won Paris in 2020, staging a remarkable comeback in the final against Alexander Zverev. Trailing 5-7, 3-4, Medvedev won nine of the last 10 games to turn the match — and his season — around.
“Before the tournament I was not in my best form, playing not so bad with zero finals this year,” said Medvedev, who carried his momentum into the Nitto ATP Finals and won the year-end event two weeks later. “I was actually crying to my wife — not crying — but just complaining, ‘Oh my God, I don’t have the level, I don’t even have one final, I’m playing so bad’, bla bla bla… So finally, I’m the winner of the Rolex Paris Masters.”
A Paris victory has often foreshadowed success at the season-finale Nitto ATP Finals, Andy Murray demonstrated in 2016. Murray closed the year on a 24-match winning streak, capturing his lone Rolex Paris Masters title — which was also his final Masters 1000 triumph — before defeating Novak Djokovic in the Nitto ATP Finals, a match that decided the ATP Year-End No. 1 crown presented by PIF.
Roger Federer, one of the most accomplished tennis icons with 103 tour-level titles, found Paris a tougher conquest. He won the Rolex Paris Masters just once, in 2011, ending the season on a 17-match winning streak. “I have had many attempts to win Paris and, for some reason, I wasn’t able to. It’s a special victory,” Federer reflected.
The Rolex Paris Masters switched from carpet to hard courts in 2007, but even during the carpet era, conditions favoured heavy-hitting baseliners like Marat Safin, who claimed three of the first five titles of the 21st century (2000, 2002, 2004).
Safin also reached the 1999 final but fell to Andre Agassi, who, along with rival Pete Sampras, claimed multiple Paris titles in the 1990s. Agassi completed a rare Paris double in 1999, winning both Roland Garros and the indoor event in November. His first Paris Masters triumph came in 1994.
Sandwiched between Agassi’s Paris triumphs, Sampras captured the title twice. In 1997, Paris marked one of Sampras’ eight tour-level titles that year alone. In 1995, the American claimed Paris by defeating Becker in the final. Becker was the first player to claim three Paris titles (1986, 1989 and 1992).
Edberg’s aggressive game and exceptional net skills helped carry him to the 1990 Paris title. In a rematch of that year’s epic five-set Wimbledon final, the Paris final proved far less dramatic. Becker retired after just six games due to a thigh injury. It was the only retirement in Edberg and Becker’s 35 Lexus ATP Head2Head meetings.
This year’s top two seeds, Alcaraz and Sinner, have yet to triumph at the Rolex Paris Masters. Could the latest edition feature one of them lifting the trophy in a week’s time?
[NEWSLETTER FORM]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: