There’s one opponent that nobody who has ever picked up a tennis racket has defeated, and that may be a brick wall.
For Félix Auger-Aliassime, Daniil Medvedev should really feel like one.
Every week after spoiling the Canadian’s title defence in Rotterdam, Medvedev booted Auger-Aliassime out of a match as soon as once more on Friday, this time defeating him within the Doha semifinals in straight units.
Whereas the second seed did a greater job of dictating factors and hanging along with his artful opponent than he did per week in the past, Auger-Aliassime couldn’t discover a technique to maintain Medvedev from extending rallies and drawing errors. The outcome was a gritty 6-4, 7-6(7) victory for the person who now leads their head-to-head 6-0.
As soon as once more, Medvedev performed a clear match, committing simply eight unforced errors whereas drawing 27 out of his opponent. He additionally survived 30 winners from Auger-Aliassime, whose often deadly first serve let him down as he put simply 56 per cent of them in play.
As is usually the case with Medvedev, the longer rallies enormously benefitted him as he gained 57 per cent of factors that went past 5 pictures, which accounted for nearly half the factors within the match.
Proper from the beginning, the matchup drawback attributable to Medvedev was on full show because the Canadian ran him across the court docket however struggled to finish factors. The outcome was a right away break of serve for the previous world No. 1.
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The Medvedev wall continued to frustrate Auger-Aliassime, who discovered himself going through a pair of break factors at 2-4, 15-40 however a pair of uncharacteristic misses from Medvedev allowed the Canadian to carry serve.
That sport marked the beginning of a short lull from Medvedev that lasted simply lengthy sufficient for Auger-Aliassime to increase the set. A poor sport from the third seed gave the Canadian a love-40 opening and on the second break level, he fired a passing shot into Medvedev’s ft to stage the set at 4-4.
Auger-Aliassime had an opportunity to tug forward for the primary time when he led the next sport 40-15 on his personal serve, however all of a sudden the unique script returned and a sequence of dangerous misses from the Canadian, together with a surprising on-the-run passing shot from Medvedev, handed the break proper again.
The back-and-forth almost continued as Medvedev served for the set, however he saved a pair of break factors from 15-40 down earlier than closing it out.
The second set adopted a virtually equivalent script to the primary, with Medvedev irritating the Canadian early and scoring a fast break, having a 15-40 opening to make it a double break, solely to overlook his break factors after which be damaged proper again.
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This time, Auger-Aliassime held his nerve as he turned a 1-3, 15-40 deficit right into a 4-3 lead and he exercised persistence whereas pounding his forehand to maintain Medvedev behind the baseline.
Because the set went alongside, the Canadian started to develop in confidence and stored his opponent at bay. Nevertheless, he was unable to create any extra alternatives to interrupt so a tiebreak was required.
Daring play from Auger-Aliassime regarded like it might be sufficient to increase the match as he held a trio of set factors at 6-4 and 7-6, however he did not convert all three together with one on his personal serve. Dealing with match level for the primary time at 7-8, he sailed a forehand lengthy.
Subsequent up for Auger-Aliassime is the ATP 500 occasion in Dubai earlier than shifting his consideration to the American Masters 1000 occasions in March.
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