World No. 1 Jannik Sinner became the first player to advance to the semi-finals at the ATP Finals on Thursday.

Sinner was assured of a spot in the last four after US Open finalist Taylor Fritz beat Alex de Minaur 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 in their group.

Fritz moved closer to the semis but will have to wait and see if Sinner can take a set off Daniil Medvedev.

Seventh seed De Minaur, meanwhile, goes home without winning a single match in the Ilie Nastase group on his tournament debut.

“He was all over me (in the first set). What I did a great job of was in the second set, towards the end of the second set, I really started to find my serve,” Fritz said.

“I started serving much better and then that allowed me to just stay with it and create more pressure on his service games... It just gave me a little bit of comfort to just stay in the match and not be under so much pressure all the time.”

The two played some entertaining tennis in the opening set, including a 30-shot rally which De Minaur won with a passing shot while Fritz walked back to the baseline with a wry smile.

De Minaur converted the all-important break at 5-5 and served for the set, sealing it with an ace.

The Australian, however, needed to win the second set comfortably to stand a chance of advancing to the semi-finals and saw his slim hopes of going through evaporate when Fritz levelled the score at one set apiece.

That was all the motivation a fired-up Fritz needed as he raced into a 4-1 lead to
gain control of the decider while De Minaur crumbled. At 5-3, Fritz had three match points and took the contest with an ace.

“I think all of us are pretty beat up, but if I’m in the semis of the World Tour finals, I’ve got energy to give it for the semis,” Fritz added.

Zverev on course

On Wednesday, Alexander Zverev made it two wins in two matches by beating Casper Ruud 7-6 (3), 6-3.

Ruud, who reached the final in 2022, could hardly have served any better, missing only nine first serves all match.

But a couple of errors when he served at 3-4 in the second set proved costly as Zverev got the decisive break.

Zverev then finished it off to chalk up his Tour-leading 68th match win of the year.