Jannik Sinner secures return to No. 1 ranking after winning fifth title of the year in Paris

In addition to one of the biggest titles of the year, there were big stakes for both of the players in the final of the Rolex Paris Masters on Sunday—with a win, Jannik Sinner would return to No. 1, while Felix Auger-Aliassime would qualify for this year's ATP Finals.

And this time, it was Sinner's day.

The Italian outslugged the Canadian in a close two-setter, 6-4, 7-6 (4), to capture his fifth title of the year, adding to previous titles at the Australian Open, Wimbledon, Beijing and Vienna.

With that, Sinner will now return to No. 1 when the new ATP rankings are released on Monday, kicking off his 66th career week there.

His first 65 career weeks at the top spot all came consecutively between June 10th, 2024 and September 7th, 2025, when Carlos Alcaraz took over following his triumph at the US Open.

Sinner and Alcaraz will resume their battle for No. 1—and the year-end No. 1 ranking—at the ATP Finals, which begin next weekend.

Sinner came out firing on the return in Paris on Sunday, breaking Auger-Aliassime in the very first game of the match.

That would actually turn out to be the only break of the match, as Auger-Aliassime would save every single one of the other five break points he faced, and Sinner never even faced a single one.

After 21 straight holds through the rest of the match it all came to a boil in the second set tie-break, where again it all came down to just one mini-break—Sinner grabbed that for a 3-2 lead, and the two held their service points from there until it was all over.

The Italian sealed the victory after an hour and 52 minutes on court by rifling one last down-the-line backhand winner.

He finished the match with 25 winners to 15 unforced errors.

"It was such an intense final here," he said. "We both knew what's on the line, so for him it's a very difficult spot, but for my side I'm extremely happy. The past couple of months have been amazing, we've tried to work on a couple of things and trying to improve, and seeing these kinds of results makes me incredibly happy.

"It's been an amazing year no matter what comes now in Turin."

Sinner now has five career Masters 1000 titles, having also won one in 2023 (Canada) and three in 2024 (Miami, Cincinnati and Shanghai). This is also the milestone 10th "big title" of his career, as he's won four Grand Slam titles and one ATP Finals title.

Speaking of the ATP Finals and Turin, the battle for the eighth and final qualifying spot at the elite eight-player event will now come down to this coming week—the last week of the regular season—and a pair of ATP 250 events in Metz, France and Athens, Greece.

Auger-Aliassime, who's playing in Metz, is one of only two players still in contention, alongside Lorenzo Musetti, who's playing in Athens.

The Canadian is currently No. 8 in the Race to the ATP Finals standings with 3,845 points, 160 points ahead of the Italian, who's currently at No. 9 in the race standings with 3,685 points.

Stay tuned to TENNIS.com for all the latest race updates this week, and stream ATP action this week on the Tennis Channel App!