The Murcian Carlos Alcaraz, world number one, lost this Saturday against the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, third favorite, who will play his third final of the Basel tournament in the last three weeks.

Auger-Aliassime, number 9 in the standings, beat Alcaraz 6-3, 6-2 in 1h22, and awaits a rival in the final, which will come from this afternoon’s duel between his compatriot Roberto Bautista and Dane Holger Rune. .

The Canadian took the measure of the Murcian, who won in the three clashes between the two. First it was in the quarter-finals of the 2021 US Open and later this year in the Davis Cup. Alcaraz have never been able to with Toni Nadal’s pupil who faces this last part of the course in order to secure a place to play the ATP Finals.

Auger Aliassime overwhelmed the Spaniards from the start. Alcaraz failed to break the Canadian’s serve throughout the game. The Murcian lost his serve in the eighth game and then consolidated to close the set.

Carlos Alcaraz did not have the capacity to react afterwards. The world number one has always been uncomfortable on the track. The American unbalanced the second set in the third game to get 2-1 and kept his. He broke again in 7th to increase his lead to 5-2, insurmountable for the Spaniard who suffered defeat after an hour and 22 minutes of play.

Alcaraz has not been able to play in the final since becoming world number one. After winning the US Open, where he reached the top of the circuit, he fell in the first round of the Astana tournament. Later, in the Davis Cup, he lost to Auger Aliassime and then won a victory against Korea. He found more stability in Basel but didn’t make it past the semi-finals. Now the Paris Masters 1000 awaits him.

Félix Auger Aliassime is living in a dream time. Against Alcaraz, he added his twelfth consecutive victory that successes in Florence and Antwerp have given him in recent weeks, which joined the one won months before in Rotterdam, also this year. Now, in Basel, he aspires to the fourth title of the season, the third in a row that he will play against the winner of the duel between the Spaniard Roberto Bautista and the Dane Holger Rune.