Felix Auger-Aliassime’s hopes of qualifying for the ATP Finals have potentially been dealt a death blow after he appeared to sustain a serious knee injury at the Shanghai Masters.
The Canadian still has an outside chance of securing a place at the season-ending tournament in Turin, but he was forced to retire from his fourth-round match against Casper Ruud late in the first set.
Auger-Aliassime’s problems started in game three while serving at 1-2 as he was 40-0 up, but then lost five points in a row and faced a break point at 40-A. He fell and landed awkwardly on his knee, going on to lose the point as Ruud took a 1-3 lead.
The Canadian signalled to his team that he was injured as he stuttered to the back of the court for the start of the next game.
“I think he’s struggling here. Is it the knee? He’s had knee issues in his career,” Colin Felming said during Sky Sports commentary.
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Naomi Cavaday replied: “Just all of a sudden… He definitely looks uncomfortable. Of course, the break won’t be sitting nicely either, but definitely something distracting him, contributing to those misses. Did not want to load.”
The world No 5 was visibly in discomfort and the commentators recalled a similar incident from the 2025 ATP Finals.
Fleming added: “Five points in a row [he lost] there. Capitulation from 40-0. Not a good game but seemingly some physical issues. He did have a very strange situation in Turin last year, I don’t know if you remember the Tour Finals, where it seemed to me, he had some sort of serious knee injury.
“But it transpired it was almost like a cramping issue that he was dealing with. Just wonder if it could be something similar here. Noticed very early in the match, not a sort of cramp borne out of fatigue as such, but maybe just a tightness.”
Ruud then held serve comfortably for a 1-4 advantage before the Canadian took a three-minute medical timeout as the physio strapped his knee before he continued the match.
Auger-Aliassime managed to hold serve, but went 2-5 behind before he decided to throw in the towel, telling his team: “No, it hurts too much.”
His physio told him, “Don’t play, it’s fine”, and that was that as he went over to shake Ruud’s hand.
The 26-year-old is currently 15th in the Race To Turin, 415 points behind Alex de Minaur, who currently occupies the final place.
But his latest injury setback means he is unlikely to play at next week’s European Open in Brussels, while there are also doubts over his participation in the Swiss Basel Indoors (26 October) and Paris Masters (2 November).
