After a gradual begin to his opening spherical match, Félix Auger-Aliassime was not excited by having to mount one other comeback in Rotterdam.
The Canadian raced out to an early lead in his spherical of sixteen conflict with Andy Murray and by no means appeared again, advancing to the quarter-finals of the ABN Amro World Tennis Event with a straight-sets win over the previous world primary.
Auger-Aliassime broke early in each units and, regardless of Murray hanging powerful, didn’t permit his opponent to get forward as he claimed a 6-3, 6-4 victory.
Ending factors proved to be the distinction, because the pair completed with virtually the identical variety of unforced errors, however Auger-Aliassime had greater than twice as many winners, 22 to 10, as his opponent. He was additionally ruthless on the web, profitable 14 of 17 factors when coming in.
The final time these two met, Auger-Aliassime solely dropped 9 video games in a route of Murray on the 2020 US Open. The Canadian picked up the place he left off in Rotterdam, breaking in his opponent’s first two service video games on his method to an early 4-0 lead.
Murray would claw his manner again into the set, reclaiming one of many breaks, however regardless of the fightback by the Scot, Auger-Aliassime held on to his second break which was sufficient to take the opening set.
Very like the primary set, the Canadian received an early break lead however Murray fought again. This time, the Scot responded instantly after being damaged to stage the set at 2-all, however Auger-Aliassime preserve the strain on and received the break proper again.
This time, he didn’t let up, driving his serve into the quarter-final, the place he’ll meet one other Brit, sixth seed Cameron Norrie.
Earlier within the day, Denis Shapovalov and associate Rohan Bopanna had been overwhelmed within the quarter-finals of the doubles competitors by fourth seeds Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski in a match tiebreak.
Vasek Pospisil continues scorching streak in Dallas
Contemporary off of his tenth ATP Challenger title in Quimper, France, Vasek Pospisil was in a position to preserve his momentum going on the Dallas Open this week, qualifying for his first ATP main-draw motion because the BNP Paribas Open final October. His opponent in as we speak’s round-of-16 match was one other fellow qualifier – world No. 153 Jurij Rodionov of Austria.
Thus far this week, the Canadian soared previous his opponents within the qualifying rounds after which dismantled wildcard Caleb Chakravarthi 6-1, 6-0 in his first-round bout. Two of the 4 instances Pospisil scored a bagel on the ATP Tour, he went on to make the ultimate on the occasion. He’ll look so as to add to that stat after managing to edge 22-year-old Rodionov in as we speak’s contest 6-7(3), 7-6(6), 6-3.
Pospisil will play world No. 26 John Isner within the quarter-finals on Friday. The 6-foot-10 American leads their head-to-head 4-2.
