FAA
Needing every point possible to advance to the year-end ATP Finals, Montreal’s Felix Auger-Aliassime advanced to the Round of 16 at the Paris Masters on Wednesday with a razor-thin 5-7, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4) win over France’s Alexandre Muller.
Auger-Aliassime used his powerful serve to get through the match. He fired 21 aces and had an average first-serve speed of 206 kilometres per hour.
The ninth-seeded Auger-Aliassime needs a deep run at the ATP 1000 event to make up ground on Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti, who is eighth, one spot ahead of Auger-Aliassime, in the ATP Race To Turin standings. The top eight qualify for the season-ending event in Italy.
Auger-Aliassime caught a break when Musetti was upset 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 by fellow Italian Lorenzo Sonego later Wednesday.
The 25-year-old Auger-Aliassime won an ATP 250 event in Belgium nine days ago, but he potentially left some points on the table when he retired during a quarterfinal clash in Basel last week with a sore back.
Muller scored the first break of the match at a crucial time, forcing an error on set point to take the first frame 7-5.
The Frenchman rode that momentum to an early 2-0 lead in the second set after breaking Auger-Aliassime in the second game. But the Canadian responded with a break in the next game and held serve the rest of the way to force a tiebreak.
Auger-Aliassime trailed the tiebreak 5-4 before firing back-to-back aces, then taking set point on return.
Both players held serve in the third set, and Auger-Aliassime came back from deficits of 3-0 and 4-3 in the tiebreak to win the match.
Auger-Aliassime will face Daniel Altmier in the Round of 16. He has a 1-2 career record against the German.
Auger-Aliassime has played in 11 tiebreaks over his last nine matches. While that may make for nervous moments, he often comes out of them on the winning end. According to the ATP Tour’s website, Auger-Aliassime is tied for fourth on tour with a tiebreak winning percentage of 69.2.
In other second-round action Wednesday, Montreal’s Gabriel Diallo was scheduled to face sixth-seeded Australian Alex de Minaur.