Alex de Minaur's nightmare confirmed as World No.3 'loses the plot' in ATP Finals shocker

Sam Stosur has slapped down suggestions that Alex de Minaur is simply making up the numbers in the semis of the ATP Finals. And the tournament was rocked by a major shock on Friday night when Felix Auger-Aliassime beat Alexander Zverev to knock the World No.3 out.

The final four is now set, with de Minaur handed a nightmare assignment against Jannik Sinner. And Auger-Aliassime will take on Carlos Alcaraz in the other semi-final after a stunning win over Zverev.

Auger-Aliassime - the World No.8 and lowest-ranked player in the eight-man field - won 6-4 7-6 (4) to join Sinner in advancing to the semis from the Bjorn Borg group. World No.2 Sinner had earlier completed a sweep of his round-robin matches by dispatching the already-eliminated World No.5 Ben Shelton 6-3 7-6 (3).

Zverev missed a raft of opportunities against Auger-Aliassime, with leading reporter Jose Morgado saying he "lost the plot" at the end of the first set. The German then failed to convert any of his four break point opportunities and made 18 of his 27 unforced errors in the second set. The World No.3 repeatedly gestured towards his team in frustration, and cut a forlorn figure when the match was over.

Auger-Aliassime and de Minaur (No.7) are both into the semi-finals for the first time in their careers. The lowest-ranked players in the field will be major underdogs against their top-ranked opponents, with Alcaraz the World No.1 and Sinner No.2.

"You want to be in the final but I’ll have to go through a great player to do that," Auger-Aliassime said of facing Alcaraz. "I will take my chance if I have it. It feels amazing. I always believed that I could be in these moments, that I could win these type of matches but you still have to to come and do it.

"Today was high in emotions I think for both of us ... and I played good when I needed to ... I’m blessed and so, so happy to be in the semi-finals."

Alex de Minaur trying to overcome Jannik Sinner misery

As for de Minaur, he'll need to overcome a horror record against Sinner to make the final. He's never beaten the Italian star in 12 head-to-head meetings stretching back six long years.

The Aussie has only taken two sets off Sinner in all of those encounters in what's proven to be one of the most one-sided rivalries at the top level of the men's game. Speaking after his win over Shelton, Sinner heaped praise on de Minaur for his won over World No.6 Taylor Fritz that got him into the semis.

"Props to him to come back with such an incredible performance, one of the best matches I've seen him play, against Taylor," Sinner said. "So I have to be very careful because he doesn't have a lot to lose.

"I have a lot to lose - so it's going to be very difficult. But I'm very happy to be in the semis and, hopefully, I can show some good tennis and we can hope for a couple of great semis."

Sam Stosur rejects suggestions about Alex de Minaur

Ahead of the clash, Aussie tennis great Stosur rejected suggestions de Minaur has no hope. "It's probably no secret that he doesn't maybe have some of the huge weapons that a lot of these guys in the finals have," Stosur said on 'The Tennis' podcast. "So he's sort of up against it in that way when he plays back-to-back guys in the top-eight, top-10 all the time, which I think is showing in his record against them.

"But he's one of them. He's in the top eight. He didn't buy his way in there, he's earned every single point and every single spot to make himself qualify for Finals and be in the top eight in the world and finish an incredible year off."

Semi-final schedule for ATP Finals (all times AEDT):

Click here to read article