Canadians Auger-Aliassime, Shapovalov withdraw in Basel quarterfinals

BASEL — Canadians Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov both withdrew from their quarterfinal matches on Friday at the Swiss Indoors tennis tournament.

Montreal’s Auger-Aliassime, a two-time winner of the ATP 500 event, retired after losing the first set 6-3 to Spain’s Jaume Munar.

Later, Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., retired while down 3-6, 6-3, 4-1 to Brazil’s Joao Fonseca.

Auger-Aliassime, who won his third trophy of the year last week in Brussels, saw his hopes of qualifying for the ATP Finals in Turin dented with the loss.

He entered the tournament ranked 12th in the world and ninth in the Race to Turin standings, 340 points behind eighth-placed Lorenzo Musetti. The top eight qualify for the year-end championship.

Auger-Aliassime, seeded fifth in Basel, appeared to tweak his lower back during the first set and spent time stretching it out throughout the quarterfinal.

He dropped his serve in the fourth game and was never able to recover, though he did fend off three break points in the sixth game.

He had defeated fellow Canadian Gabriel Diallo (No. 41) and Croatia’s Marin Cilic (No. 89) in the previous two rounds.

World No. 23 Shapovalov, who was coming off a semifinal appearance last week in Stockholm, looked solid in his first set against Fonseca, overcoming a break in the first game to go up 1-0.

But the Brazilian teen, ranked 46th in the world, came back with a strong second set. He scored his fifth break of the match to go up 4-1 in the third set when Shapovalov retired.

Munar and Fonseca will meet in the semifinals.

Meanwhile, Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and her American partner Sofia Kenin fell to Brazil’s Luisa Stefani and Hungary’s Timea Babos in the women’s doubles quarterfinals at the Tokyo Open.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2025.