Indian Wells, California
Look out tennis world there is another young Canadian on the rise and he quickly got peoples attention at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Indian Wells on Friday night.
At just 17-years and 7 months of age, Felix Auger-Aliassime won his first career main draw ATP match with a 6-2, 7-6 victory over countryman Vasek Pospisil in front of a packed crowd inside Stadium 2 in the desert.
Auger-Aliassime, from Montreal Quebec, is following in the footsteps of good friend Denis Shapovalov who also saw his break out begin at a Masters 1000 event in Montreal last year. “FAA” became the youngest player to win a tour level match since his pal “Shapo” did it at 17 years and 3 months of age when he defeated Nick Kyrgios in Toronto in 2016. He is also the first player born in the year 2000 to win an ATP match.
Playing in front of the biggest crowd of his career, the World No. 169 got off to a great start rallying to win four straight points to break Pospisil in the opening game of the match. Then on his first service game, the youngster fired a 127 mph ace to go up 2-0.
Three games later, after a Pospisil backhand sailed long, Auger-Aliassime broke again to take a 4-1 lead. In the next game his fastest serve of the match, a 133 mph bullet followed by another 127 mph bomb gave him a 5-1 lead. With 12 winners and just seven mistakes, Auger-Aliassime locked up the opening set.
In the second, the players held serve throughout. Auger-Aliassime managed to stave off a set point in the twelfth game with one of his 11 aces in the match.
In the tiebreak Pospisil got out to a 3-1 lead after a pair of loose forehand mistakes from the player ten years his junior. But the 2015 Doubles Champion at Indian Wells, will look back on the point with the score tied at 3. After a pair of well placed forehands which Auger-Aliassime scrambled to return, Pospisil sailed an easy forehand long. You could sense the momentum shift and Auger-Aliassime took advantage winning four of the final five points in the tiebreak to seal the deal.
The crowd filled with Canadians, jumped to their seats saluting the youngsters monumental victory.
“Firsts are always good,” said Auger-Aliassime. “You know, get your first win, you break the ice. And then after, it’s like the next time I’m on the stadium, it’s something I have seen before.”
A year ago at this time, Auger-Aliassime was ranked No 511 in the world and playing in a Challenger event in his home province of Quebec. He won the event collecting $3,600. His win today means he is ranking will go up and he will go home with at least $25,000.
“It’s crazy…never would have thought I’d be here talking to you guys 2nd round of the Masters. This transition went pretty fast for me, so it’s quite unbelievable to be here so early. As a kid, those are the moments you dream of and those are the stages you want to play on.”
After a rare all Canadian matchup on Friday, Auger-Aliassime will play another Canadian Milos Raonic in the next round. Raonic has been battling injury problems and he has won just one of the four matches he has played in 2018.
“It’s exciting to see someone I have looked up to growing up. You know, I’ll try do everything I can to return the serve and hang in there. It’s quite exciting (smiling).”
Not to discredit the victory by Auger-Aliassime, but Friday night’s match was Pospisil’s seventh in the last 11 days. He played four matches in the Oracle Challenger Series last week along with two qualifying matches this week to get into the main draw. Auger-Aliassime lost in the opening round of the same Challenger event.
There are four Canadians left in the singles draw at Indian Wells. Along with Auger-Aliassime and Raonic, Denis Shapovalov plays his second round match against 30th seed Pablo Cuevas while Peter Polansky faces No. 20 Adrian Mannarino both on Saturday.
@Sportshorn
