After underperforming on clay, Félix Auger-Aliassime started the season on grass in a magnificent way by signing three wins en route to the final in Stuttgart last week.
This week, at the Open Noventi in Halle, Germany, Auger-Aliassime had his doubles partner, Pole Hubert Hurkacz, as his first opponent.
Auger-Aliassime continued his momentum and took the measure of his teammate in the scores of 6-3 and 7-5.
It was the Canadian who struck the first blow, delighting the service of his rival in the sixth game on the only break point of the set.
Auger-Aliassime faced a bit more resistance in the fourth game of the second act. Led 15-40 on his serve, the Canadian produced two aces and powerful forehands to get out of trouble and tie the score at 2-2.
Once again, the only breakage of the second set was recorded by the Canadian in the eleventh game.
From the next game, Auger-Aliassime served for the match and brought his turf record to four wins and one backhand for this year.
The Hurkacz tournament is not over, however, as he and Auger-Aliassime will play their round of 16 doubles duel tomorrow after eliminating Russians Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov in three sets of 6-3, 4-6 and 10-5, Monday.
Auger-Aliassime will face quite a challenge in his next singles match. Indeed, he will face Roger Federer, ten times Open Noventi champion and eighth best player in the world, for the first time in his career.
DENIS SHAPOVALOV WINS A DEMONSTRATION OF SERVICES
Later that day, Denis Shapovalov was in his first round match at the Cinch Championships in London. Opposed to Australian qualifier Aleksandar Vukic, he won 7-6 (6) and 7-6 (6).
Shapovalov is taking part in this event on the Circuit 500 of the ATP Tour for the fourth time in his career. It was in 2017 that he achieved his best performance, reaching the round of 16 after successfully passing the preliminary rounds. This year, the Canadian is the second headliner in the table.
Although he had to excel on his second serves in the first inning, Shapovalov won 29 of his 33 serve points (90 percent of his first balls and 85 percent of his second).
Vukic managed to erase the two break points he faced in the fourth and sixth game, notably managing to counter a gigantic setback from Shapovalov.
A tie-break was needed to determine the winner of the first set. Shapovalov fought off a Vukic set point before realizing his own set point to win 7-6 (6).
The waiters gave it to their heart’s content in the second act. Indeed, the Australian won 28 of his 32 points in service, while the Canadian won 29 of his 37.
After the first five games were won 40-0 by the server, the two protagonists inevitably headed for another tie-breaker.
Leading by a mini-break, Vukic had three chances to win the round. Shapovalov, however, had no intention of prolonging the confrontation and put all the rubber to it to gain the next five points and to seal the outcome of the battle in two sets.
Shapovalov thus advances to the second round of the Cinch Championships for the second time. Thursday, he will cross swords with Feliciano Lopez. Last week, the Canadian needed three innings to get away from the Spaniard in the second round of the tournament in Stuttgart, Germany.
SOLID START OF LEYLAH FERNANDEZ ON THE GRASS
Leylah Fernandez, the only Canadian to improve her standings following Roland Garros, won her first-round duel at the Birmingham Viking Classic, a WTA 250 class event staged in England.
Fernandez beat China’s Yafan Wang, a qualifying player, in two sets of 7-5 and 6-3.
