Archive November 12, 2025

Felix Auger-Aliassime put a “weird start” aside to beat Ben Shelton and register his first victory of this year’s ATP Finals.

Canada’s Auger-Aliassime came back from a mixed first set to beat the big-serving American 4-6 7-6 (9-7) 7-5 in Turin.

The 25-year-old was increasingly impressive on serve and showed no signs of the calf problem that hampered him in his opening group-match loss to Jannik Sinner.

Eighth seed Auger-Aliassime’s victory means Italy’s Sinner will qualify for the semi-finals if he beats Alexander Zverev later on Wednesday.

Auger-Aliassime quickly found himself 4-1 down in the first set, with Shelton putting the serve and volley to good use, but he broke back as his opponent served for the set.

However, a poor service game handed the initiative – and the opener – to fifth seed Shelton.

Shelton had the only break point of the second set but an increasingly confident Auger-Aliassime saved it, before clinching the tie-breaker on a wild double fault from Shelton.

A tight third set was also decided on the Shelton serve, with Auger-Aliassime converting his third match point.

“He was playing much better than me at the start,” Auger-Aliassime said.

In the doubles, British pair Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski beat Henry Patten and Harri Heliovaara to move within touching distance of the semi-finals.

England captain Ben Stokes must “respect” the views of former players says ex-skipper Michael Vaughan, after Stokes described some of his critics as “has-beens”.

Vaughan, former captain Graham Gooch and legendary all-rounder Lord Botham have been among those to question England’s preparation for first Ashes Test next week.

Speaking on Wednesday morning, Stokes defended the decision to have a solitary warm-up match – an in-house game against England Lions – saying “we can’t prepare how the has-beens maybe prepared”.

Writing in the Telegraph, Vaughan said: “England have to accept that there will be scrutiny.

“Just because the ‘has-beens’ have a different view does not mean these are not valid comments. England should respect those views.

“They are coming from legends of the game who can’t play any more because they are too old, but that doesn’t mean they don’t desperately want England to win.

England’s three-day warm-up against their development side begins on Thursday. The first Test against Australia starts eight days later on 21 November.

Stokes’ side have been training in Perth this week and their approach is similar to their preparations for their five previous overseas tours under Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum. England have won the first Test of those series on each occasion.

But it differs from many previous Ashes tours, when England played several warm-up games. Botham said it “borders on arrogance”, Vaughan called it a “huge risk” and Gooch labelled it “glorified practice”.

Stokes responded by saying “cricket has changed so much” and pointed to the busier calendar, plus the fact the ongoing Australian domestic season would have impacted the quality of opponents, as reasons not to have an extended build-up.

“There are quite a few factors that go into why we can’t prepare how the has-beens maybe prepared in the past,” he said.

England are seeking their first victory on Australian soil since 2010-11, with many believing Stokes’ side have the best chance of success since that trip.

Former England assistant Paul Farbrace dismissed the idea Stokes was being “disrespectful” and said his words were a message to his squad to block out the outside noise.

“All Ben Stokes is saying, forget the noise, forget everything that is going on,” Farbrace told BBC Sport.

“It doesn’t matter if it is an English great or an Australian great, let them have their say, it doesn’t really matter.

“Ben isn’t being disrespectful.

“He is very respectful of all of the greats that have gone before. Don’t worry about the way Ben has said it.”

Farbrace was part of the management for the 2017-18 tour when England played four warm-up matches against local sides and lost the Test series 4-0.

He said the hierarchy reflected afterwards that they would have been better served with a build-up similar to the one scheduled this year.

He added: “Don’t be kidded by thinking this England team aren’t prepared.

“I get the former players’ thoughts but let’s get behind our team.

“Let’s do something that is typically un-English and support our team rather than giving them a kicking before the series has even started.”

Former captain David Gower, a team-mate of Botham and Gooch, was part of England’s victorious 1986-87 tour – their only other win in Australia since the 1970s.

“I hate to say it, somewhere in between is the right solution,” Gower told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“I wouldn’t advocate you play three whole games. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t.

“These days they don’t worry about it in the same way, back themselves somehow to say ‘tomorrow is a Test match put the on-switch up and all of the burners on’.

“The whole thing is about peaking at that moment.