Serve fires Sabalenka to crushing win over Paolini at WTA Finals
Aryna Sabalenka celebrates securing the year-end world number one ranking with a crushing victory over Jasmine Paolini at the WTA Finals.
Aryna Sabalenka celebrates securing the year-end world number one ranking with a crushing victory over Jasmine Paolini at the WTA Finals.
Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten captured their first ATP Masters 1000 title on Sunday at the Rolex Paris Masters, where they defeated second seeds Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool 6-3, 6-4.
With their championship-match victory, Heliovaara and Patten ensured that the battle for ATP Year-End No. 1 Doubles presented by PIF honours will go down to the wire at the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin. Had Cash and Glasspool captured their eighth title of the season, they would have secured that honour.
New kings in the City of Light! 👑👑
Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten secure their first ATP Masters 1000 crown with a 6-3 6-4 victory over Cash/Glasspool!@RolexPMasters | #RolexParisMasters pic.twitter.com/91zB9UO8nE
— ATP Tour (@atptour) November 2, 2025
In a fearless final display, Heliovaara and Patten saved all three break points they faced, according to Infosys ATP Stats, which all came in a crucial fifth game. The win also marked a breakthrough for the Finnish-British duo, who had lost all four previous Lexus ATP Head2Head meetings with Cash and Glasspool earlier in 2025.
“It’s amazing. We are two very happy happy boys,” said Patten. “Julian and Lloyd are the best pair in the world right now. We’re still 4-1 down and still have a lot of catching up to do. We’re extremely proud of the performance and there’s no better place to do that in Paris.”
With their win, Heliovaara and Patten jumped up to second in the PIF ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings, now just 1,305 points behind first-placed Cash and Glasspool.
“I had one other team that I lost four times in a row to,” added Heliovaara, who competed alongside Glasspool between 2021 and 2023. “I told them after the fifth that ‘No one beats Harri five times in a row’. We learned from those previous matches. It’s such a weird dynamic [with Cash/Glasspool], we’re such good friends until 10 minutes before we step on the court, and then it’s battle, battle, battle.”
Heliovaara and Patten’s breakthrough in Paris marked their third title of the season, including victory at the Australian Open. They will now reset before heading to the Nitto ATP Finals, where they made their team debut last year.
“We’re really excited to play Turin,” said Patten. “Our number one goal is to enjoy the week and hopefully we can play some good tennis.”
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten kept Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool waiting in their pursuit of Year-End ATP Doubles No. 1 presented by PIF honours on Saturday at the Rolex Paris Masters.
The third-seeded Heliovaara and Patten eased past Quentin Halys and Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-3, 6-4 in the French capital to reach their maiden ATP Masters 1000 final as a team. They converted four of 11 break points they earned in their 69-minute triumph, according to Infosys ATP Stats.
Heliovaara and Patten are fourth in the PIF ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings. Had they lost on Saturday, the door would have been open for Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool to secure Year-End No. 1 in the day’s second semi-final in Paris.
[ATP AWARDS]Cash and Glasspool did ultimately defeat Francisco Cabral and Lucas Miedler 6-4, 5-7, 10-7, and the all-British duo will ensure they end the year as World No. 1 by lifting the trophy on Sunday. Should Heliovaara and Patten triumph in Paris, however, the Year-End No. 1 battle will continue into the Nitto ATP Finals, where both teams will compete.
The Paris title match will be the fifth tour-level meeting between Cash/Glasspool and Heliovaara/Patten, with all of those matches coming in 2025. Cash and Glasspool lead 4-0 in the two teams’ Lexus ATP Head2Head series, but three of those clashes have gone to a deciding set or Match Tie-break.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Under the bright lights of La Défense Arena, Jannik Sinner and Felix Auger-Aliassime will step onto court chasing significant milestones when they battle for the Rolex Paris Masters title on Sunday.
For Sinner, victory would mark his first Paris crown and seal a triumphant return to No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings, reclaiming it from rival Carlos Alcaraz. Meanwhile, Auger-Aliassime — up to eighth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin — can book his spot at the prestigious Nitto ATP Finals if he emerges victorious. Their championship clash is slated for not before 3 p.m. CEST/9 a.m. EDT.
Paris Masters Final ⚔️Sinner vs Auger-Aliassime
Can @felixtennis stop @janniksin and take the title🏆❔
His serving will be key tomorrow as he looks to nullify Sinner’s return exceptional shot qualities on the groundstrokes🔥#TennisInsights | @atptour | #RolexParisMasters pic.twitter.com/zhLTAUp2w3
— Tennis Insights (@tennis_insights) November 1, 2025
The pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series stands at 2-2, though Sinner has claimed consecutive victories in Cincinnati and at the US Open this year. Their semi-final in New York was a gripping four-set encounter, with Auger-Aliassime briefly threatening to turn the tide before Sinner’s poise prevailed.
“At one point I saw him doubt and I actually nearly had a momentum shift where I could turn the match around in my favour,” Auger-Aliassime said of that match. “After different reasons, maybe he had a letdown, and the match turns around again. But it was encouraging to see that. These players are not unplayable. They are very strong, yes. Sometimes they’re really unplayable, but there’s a way to upset them.”
Those words will underpin the Canadian’s mindset on Sunday — belief that, on his day, he can strike through even the tightest of defences.
If Auger-Aliassime is to upset Sinner’s rhythm, he will need to summon his full tactical arsenal. Indoors, Sinner has been near invincible, riding a 25-match winning streak under the roof, dating back to the Davis Cup Finals in 2023. His flat, early ballstriking make him lethal on these slick surfaces.
For Auger-Aliassime, the key will be to step inside the baseline and mix up pace with heavy topspin and slices, using his net skills to shorten the points. Fortunately for him, the numbers inspire confidence: He owns a Tour-leading 82 indoor wins this decade, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index.
This has been a season of revival for Auger-Aliassime, who has rediscovered his spark to capture three ATP Tour titles and return to the Top 10 for the first time since 2023. His run to a second ATP Masters 1000 final this week has been one of grit and composure, rallying from a set down in his first three matches, then capitalising on Lorenzo Musetti’s early exit to seize control of his Turin destiny.
“He plays incredible tennis at the moment, he has improved a lot,” Sinner said of Auger-Aliassime. “Especially in the past months, he has found his game again. I’m looking forward to it tomorrow, it’s a great occasion for both of us. I’m very happy for Felix, he is one of the nicest guys we have on Tour. It’s going to be a very difficult match.”
Watch Sinner & Auger-Aliassime set Paris final:
Sinner, meanwhile, has been a model of consistency in 2025, reaching the final in nine of the 11 tournaments he has contested. Yet it has not been without heartbreak. His Roland Garros final defeat to Alcaraz, in which he squandered three consecutive championship points, left deep scars, as did the loss of his 65-week reign as World No. 1 following their US Open final.
But every setback has fuelled his fire. In Paris this week, Sinner has been at his clinical best, dropping just 19 games across four matches en route to his ninth ATP Masters 1000 final. Now, he stands one match away from winning his fifth title at that level and reclaiming the World No. 1 spot.
As the Paris crowd prepares for the first final at the tournament’s new home of La Défense Arena, the stakes are high. Sinner is playing to confirm his dominance; Auger-Aliassime to remind the tennis world of his.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Jannik Sinner and Felix Auger-Aliassime are set to face off in the 2025 Rolex Paris Masters final, which will take place Sunday, not before 3 p.m. CEST/9 a.m. EDT.
Sinner, the No. 2 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, is level with Auger-Aliassime at 2-2 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series. The 24-year-old won their past two meetings, in Cincinnati and the US Open earlier this year.
The Italian is on a 25-match winning streak on indoor hard courts and is aiming to clinch his first crown in Paris and 23rd overall. Should he win, he will reclaim the top spot in the PIF ATP Rankings from Carlos Alcaraz.
Auger-Aliassime will be competing in his second ATP Masters 1000 final and is aiming to win his fourth title of the season. The Canadian currently holds the eighth spot in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin and will qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals should he defeat Sinner in Sunday’s final.
Read more from Paris:
Sinner surges to Paris final, cusp of reclaiming World No. 1
Auger-Aliassime blunts Bublik in Paris, charges into Turin qualifying spot
New court, same energy: Inside the Paris Masters and its new era
An ATP 250 doubleheader brings the 2025 PIF ATP Live Race To Turin to a close this week, when Athens and Metz play host to high-stakes indoor hard-court action.
ATP Tour tennis returns to Athens for the first time since 1994 with the Vanda Pharmaceuticals Hellenic Championship, where former No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings Novak Djokovic headlines the field. Djokovic’s fellow Top 10 star Lorenzo Musetti seeks a deep run in Athens to try and claim the final open spot at the upcoming Nitto ATP Finals.
Meanwhile Musetti’s only rival for that Turin place, Felix Auger-Aliassime, is the top seed at the Moselle Open in Metz. ATPTour.com looks ahead at five things to watch at each event.
[ATP AWARDS] FIVE THINGS TO WATCH IN ATHENS
1) Djokovic Returns To Action: The 100-time tour-level champion Djokovic competes for the first time since reaching the Shanghai semi-finals last month. The 38-year-old is the top seed in Athens, where he will be aiming to settle quickly into his indoor groove ahead of the Nitto ATP Finals. Djokovic starts his title bid in Greece against Alejandro Tabilo or Adam Walton.
2) Musetti Plays For Turin Spot: After his early exit at the Rolex Paris Masters, Musetti will aim for a big finish to his 2025 PIF ATP Live Race To Turin in Athens. The Italian, who is ninth in the Live Race as he chases a Nitto ATP Finals debut on home soil, trails eighth-placed Auger-Aliassime by 160 points, although the Canadian could establish an unassailable lead as early as Sunday by winning the Paris final against Jannik Sinner.
3) Stars Eye Big Finish To 2025: A host of players will aim to cap their 2025 season in style in Athens. Third seed Luciano Darderi chases his fourth title of the year, and his first away from the clay, while fourth seed Brandon Nakashima seeks his first trophy of the season. Nakashima leads a strong squad of Americans in the draw that also includes Reilly Opelka and Sebastian Korda.
4) Wild Card Wawrinka: Still going strong at 40 years old, Stan Wawrinka will close his 24th season as a pro by competing as a wild card in Athens. The Swiss former World No. 3 takes on Botic van de Zandschulp in his opening match, with the winner to take on Musetti in the second round.
5) Doumbia/Reboul Lead Doubles Field: Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul seek their second ATP 250 title of the season in Athens. The French duo enters as the top seeds in the Greek capital, where its rivals include second seeds Francisco Cabral/Lucas Miedler and home wild cards Pavlos Tsitsipas/Petros Tsitsipas, brothers of Stefanos Tsitsipas.
FIVE THINGS TO WATCH IN METZ
1) In-form Felix: Long renowned for his prowess on indoor hard courts, Auger-Aliassime arrives in Metz in excellent form. The Canadian won his third title of 2025 under the roof in Brussels earlier this month, before reaching the quarter-finals in Basel and the final in Paris. If he defeats Sinner in the title match in the French capital, he will secure a return to the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time since 2022.
2) Can Bublik Cap Career-best Year?: Although Alexander Bublik’s hopes of reaching Turin ended with semi-final defeat to Auger-Aliassime in Paris, the Kazakhstani has enjoyed a standout year on Tour. The 28-year-old will chase his fifth title of the season in Metz, where he reached the final in 2022.
3) Rinderknech Leads Home Charge: Sixth seed Arthur Rinderknech leads a set of 10 Frenchmen (not including qualifiers) in the Metz draw. Corentin Moutet is seeded eighth, with Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, Terence Atmane, Arthur Cazaux and Adrian Mannarino among the others aiming to ensure a home champion for the third consecutive year after Ugo Humbert’s 2023 triumph and Benjamin Bonzi’s 2024 title run.
4) Blockx In The Jeddah Hunt: Alexander Blockx is seventh in the PIF ATP Live Race To Jeddah, and the Belgian has the chance to take a big step towards qualifying for the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF this week in Metz. Blockx is in the main draw in France via a Next Gen entry spot, part of the ATP’s Next Gen Accelerator pathway, which provides increased opportunities for players aged 20-and-under in the Top 250 of the PIF ATP Rankings.
5) Arends/Johnson Defend Doubles Crown: Sander Arends and Luke Johnson bid to complete a hat-trick of ATP Tour titles in 2025 by defending their title in Metz. The Hong Kong and Barcelona champions, seeded second, are joined in the draw in France by top seeds Andre Goransson and Jan Zielinski, while Quentin Halys and Pierre-Hugues Herbert are among the home favourites in the field.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]A ruthless Jannik Sinner takes apart Alexander Zverev to reach the Paris Masters final and move within one win of regaining the world number one ranking.
Iga Swiatek produces a dominant start in her bid for a second WTA Finals title, dismantling Madison Keys in just 61 minutes in Riyadh.
Jannik Sinner advanced to his maiden final at the Rolex Paris Masters on Saturday after he surged past a physically hampered Alexander Zverev 6-0, 6-1.
The second-seeded Italian was ruthless from start to finish, hitting 23 winners to just 12 unforced errors as he improved to 5-4 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Zverev, who won the title in Paris last year. Zverev saved two match points to overcome Daniil Medvedev on Friday night, but he struggled with his movement and looked out of breath at various points during his semi-final clash with Sinner.
In top form from start to finish! 👏@janniksin knocks out Zverev 6-0 6-1 to reach his first final in Paris!@RolexPMasters | #RolexParisMasters pic.twitter.com/kw9qiJEu1p
— ATP Tour (@atptour) November 1, 2025
“When you drop the physicality like he did, you cannot find the full power on serve,” said Sinner, who won 13 of 16 second-serve return points, according to Infosys ATP Stats. “I’m happy to be in the final, but it’s not how you want to arrive. Playing against Sascha is always a special occasion, and today he was clearly not 100 per cent, we saw that.
“He was struggling physically. He won an incredible match yesterday, two match points down… Making the final in Vienna, coming here and making the semis again, it’s an incredible run, but we all hope that he gets better and fit for Turin.”
By extending his winning streak on indoor hard courts to 25 matches, Sinner set a championship-match meeting with Felix Auger-Aliassime. The 24-year-old Italian is into his ninth ATP Masters 1000 final, and third of the season after falling short to Carlos Alcaraz in Rome and Cincinnati.
Zverev now faces a quick turnaround to be fit for his campaign at the Nitto ATP Finals, where he is a two-time champion. He owns a 54-23 record this year, highlighted by his title in Munich and run to his third major final at the Australian Open.
Sinner is just 100 points behind Alcaraz in the PIF ATP Live Rankings and would reclaim the World No. 1 spot if he wins the title on Sunday. He is level with Auger-Aliassime at 2-2 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series, having won their two latest meetings in Cincinnati and the US Open this year.
“He plays incredible tennis at the moment, he has improved a lot,” Sinner said of Auger-Aliassime. “Especially in the past months, he has found his game again. I’m looking forward to it tomorrow, it’s a great occasion for both of us. I’m very happy for Felix, he is one of the nicest guys we have on Tour. It’s going to be a very difficult match.”
Sinner has reached the final in nine of the 11 tournaments in which he has competed in this year, including victories at the Australian Open and Wimbledon. It marks the second consecutive year he has reached nine finals, and he has now tied Alcaraz for the most Top-10 wins in 2025 (13).
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Rohan Bopanna, the former No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Doubles Rankings, announced his retirement on Saturday.
The Indian star amassed 26 tour-level doubles titles during his career, including the Australian Open in 2024 with Mattew Ebden. With that triumph, Bopanna rose to World No. 1 for the first time and became the oldest man to do so at 43 years.
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“How do you bid farewell to something that gave your life its meaning? After 20 unforgettable years on tour, however, it’s my time… I’m officially hanging up my racquet,” the 45-year-old Bopanna wrote on Instagram.
“Tennis hasn’t been just a game for me – It has given me purpose when I was lost, strength when I was broken and belief when the world doubted me.”
Bopanna won doubles titles with 15 different players across his career, which began in 2003. He won his first crown with Eric Butorac in 2008 in Los Angeles and went on to accumulate 539 tour-level wins, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index.
In 2010, he reached his first major final at the US Open with Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and then fell short at the same stage in New York in 2023 with Ebden. However, at the following Grand Slam tournament in Melbourne, Bopanna and Ebden turned heartbreak into glory by winning their first major title.
Bopanna was also a runner-up at the Nitto ATP Finals in 2012 and 2015 with Mahesh Bhupathi and Florin Mergea, respectively. The Indian won his lone mixed doubles Grand Slam title at Roland Garros in 2017 with Gabriela Dabrowski.
He most recently competed at the Rolex Paris Masters, where he partnered Alexander Bublik in a 5-7, 6-2, 8-10 first-round defeat to John Peers and JJ Tracy.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]