Auger-Aliassime wins Swiss Indoors for 3rd title in October

BASEL, Switzerland (AP) — Felix Auger-Aliassime won his third straight title in October, beating Holger Rune 6-3, 7-5 in the Swiss Indoors final on Sunday.

Auger-Aliassime went through his five matches at Basel without dropping serve, and he saved all three break points Rune had.

The third-seeded Canadian won the only break-point chance of the first set to lead 3-1, and pressured Rune into dropping his serve to take a 6-5 lead in the second. Auger-Aliassime clinched with his third match point when Rune sent a forehand long.

Auger-Aliassime added the Basel title to wins in the last two weeks at Florence, Italy, and Antwerp, Belgium. He extended his winning streak to 13 matches. The world No. 9 improved his career record in finals to 4-9 with all four titles won this year at indoor hard-court events in Europe.

The 19-year-old Rune is now 2-2 in finals and will be ranked inside the top 20 for the first time on Monday.

The combined age of the 22-year-old Auger-Aliassime and Rune added up to the same 41 years of Swiss great Roger Federer who had intended to return to tournament play at his hometown event. Federer announced his retirement last month because of persistent knee injuries.

Federer won a record 10 titles at Basel and every winner of the tournament from 2006 up to this edition also has a U.S. Open title. The others are Novak Djokovic, Juan Martin del Potro and Marin Čilić.

Auger-Aliassime beat the current U.S. Open champion, top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz, on Saturday in the semifinals to advance to face Rune.

Rune had also held every service game in Basel on his way to the final.

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