The four-time Grand Slam champion from Italy will replace six-time major winner Carlos Alcaraz at the top if he wins Sunday’s final against ninth-seed Felix Auger-Aliassime, who needs a win to clinch the eighth and final spot for the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin, Italy.
Auger-Aliassime earlier beat Alexander Bublik 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 in their semi-final at La Defense Arena.
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Sinner extended his indoor winning streak to 25 matches, including a victory over Zverev in the Vienna final last weekend.
He beat Zverev – the defending champion in Paris – for the fourth straight time to lead 5-4 in their career meetings.
The second-seeded Sinner was 5-0 up in 25 minutes and then served out a first set in which he won 90 per cent of his first-serve points, compared to only 47 per cent for Zverev. He had five break points on Zverev’s serve, converting two of them.
In the second set, Sinner broke Zverev for a 2-1 lead. The third-seeded German looked drained and stood with his hands on his knees after that game.
Zverev had saved two match points to beat Daniil Medvedev in three sets in their gritty quarter-final on Friday to end a five-match losing streak against the Russian.
“When you drop the physicality like he did, you cannot find the full power on serve,” Sinner said. “I’m happy to be in the final, but it’s not how you want to arrive. Playing against Sascha is always a special occasion, and today he was clearly not 100 per cent, we saw that.
“He was struggling physically. He won an incredible match yesterday, two match points down… Making the final in Vienna, coming here and making the semis again, it’s an incredible run, but we all hope that he gets better and fit for Turin.”
Sinner will bid for his fifth title of the year and 23rd of his career on Sunday; Auger-Aliassime goes for his fourth of the season and ninth overall.
“We played a good match in New York. I think it was good tennis, but he still got the best of me,” Auger-Aliassime said of his previous encounter with Sinner.
“He pushes players to be very, very disciplined tactically and to execute their game, you know, almost perfectly in order to win. You have to be ready to play your best tennis and to not make cheap mistakes.”
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