From injury doubt to keeping ATP Finals hopes alive: Felix Auger-Aliassime produces epic Ben Shelton comeback in Turin

Felix Auger-Aliassime showcased supreme brilliance as he not only returned to the court amid injury doubt from his previous defeat but also showed that he is a force to be reckoned with. He ended Ben Shelton's hopes at the ATP Finals winning 4-6, 7-6(7), 7-5 in favour of the Canadian.

Auger-Aliassime perhaps would've been a doubt with many even mooting that Alexander Bublik might in fact get a call up to play in the ATP Finals tournament and complete a bit of a full circle year for the Kazakh. But instead the Canadian returned to action and showed that it was a mere scare.

He came to within two points of defeat in a tense second set tie-break but he rallied to seal a win edging two sets in two hours and 25 minutes. Shelton's serve and volley presence did damage but with the potential to head out like Shelton now is, he stayed composed to seal a 20th deciding set win of the season. Also he becomes the second man to record 40 hard court wins this season.

“He was playing much better than me at the start,” Auger-Aliassime said. “It’s not often that I get broken twice in the first set indoors… It was a weird start, but as the match went on I was finding ways to put returns in the court. Once we engaged in the rallies, I felt like I could win more. You just have to fight, believe, and play the next point the right way.”

On his physical state, Auger-Aliassime said that he recovered well and that the fact he was able to play two and a half hours and seal the win showed that in reality he had very little to worry about when it came to withdrawing. “I felt great, physically. We recovered well, did the right things,” said Auger-Aliassime. “Today I was able to play two-and-a-half hours of high-intensity tennis. I have to give him credit, he kept coming up with great serves. When the opponent plays that well, you have to give him credit, but also to myself for staying cool.”

With this win, he keeps his hopes in tact of reaching the semi-finals at the season finale. Having fallen to Jannik Sinner in his opener, he now sits at 1-1 in the Bjorn Borg and he now goes into a boom or bust scenario as he faces Alexander Zverev in his final round-robin match on Friday and will know more on what he has to do when Sinner faces Zverev later on today.

But he managed to get through against Shelton and now moves forward while the American heads home after his final group game with good set and game winning stats that in any other year could get him through. But this time it sees him finish bottom.