Turin trio Felix Auger-Aliassime, Casper Ruud, Daniil Medvedev survive Basel, Vienna openers

The PIF Live Race to Turin continued to heat up across Europe as a trio of players on the bubble of qualifying made winning starts at the Swiss Indoors Basel and at Vienna’s Erste Bank Open.

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Ranked No. 11 in the Live Race standings, Casper Ruud was first out of the gate, backing up his BNP Paribas Nordic Open victory in Stockholm with a decisive 6-1, 7-6 (3) win over Quentin Halys. Felix Auger-Aliassime, ranked No. 9, followed Ruud in Basel, the Brussels champion saving two set points to ultimately defeat countryman Gabriel Diallo, 6-2, 7-5.

Down at No. 13 Daniil Medvedev continued his late surge towards a potential Turin berth by winning a fifth match in a row. Fresh off his Almaty Open title, the former world No. 1 shook off a second-set hiccup to defeat Nuno Borges, 6-4, 6-7 (7), 6-2.

Despite both ranking outside the Top 10, Ruud and Medvedev saw their hopes of making it to the Nitto ATP Finals boosted after injuries ruled out both Jack Draper and Holger Rune, who are ranked No. 10 and No. 12, respectively. No. 3 Novak Djokovic became the latest to qualify for Turin but has not confirmed his plans to compete at the year-end championships alongside fellow qualifiers Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.

A former world No. 2, Ruud looked like an early favorite to secure a fourth trip to the ATP Finals when he won his first career Masters 1000 title at the Mutua Madrid Open, but injuries and inconsistency stunted his progress throughout the summer, causing him to drop outside of the Top 10.

After showing solid form at Laver Cup, the Norwegian pushed Carlos Alcaraz to three sets at the Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo and dropped just one set en route to the title in Stockholm. In need of another deep run in Basel, the No. 4 seed navigated a close second set to oust Halys and book an intriguing second round against Stan Wawrinka. At 40 years old, the three-time Grand Slam champion pulled off an impressive win over Miomir Kecmanovic for his first ATP win since this summer in Umag. Wawrinka won his only previous match with Ruud at this very tournament in 2022.

After Ruud came Auger-Aliassme, who is in the hunt for his first ATP Finals berth since 2022. The Canadian has enjoyed a solid surge back up the ATP rankings after reaching the US Open semifinals and a pair of Masters 1000 quarterfinals in Canada and Shanghai. Like Ruud, Auger-Aliassime arrived to Basel fresh off a title run, lifting the trophy at the BNP Paribas Fortis European Open and, like Ruud, booked a second round against a former US Open champion in Marin Cilic. Cilic leads their head-to-head, 3-2, but Auger-Aliassime has won their last two meetings, including one in Dubai earlier this year.

Finally, Daniil Medvedev took the court in Vienna in the hopes of reaching a seventh straight ATP Finals. The 2021 US Open champion looked out of the hunt for Turin after enduring a third consecutive Grand Slam first-round loss in Flushing Meadows, but Medvedev has showed massive improvements since shaking up his coaching team. Medvedev parted ways with longtime coach Gilles Cervara and took on former Australian Open Tomas Johansson; from there, he reached back-to-back semifinals in Beijing and Shanghai and won his first title in 882 days at the Almaty Open.

Medvedev appeared on course for another solid win over Borges when the Portuguese 28-year-old edged through a second-set tiebreaker. Undaunted, Medvedev raced ahead two breaks to kick off the deciding set and never looked back, serving out the win to book a second-round clash with Frenchman Corentin Moutet. Medvedev and Moutet just faced off last week in the Almaty final, with Medvedev earning a 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 win. To maximize his chances to make Turin, he’ll likely need to beat him again.