Felix Auger Aliassime got his 2021 campaign with a 6-3, 6-1, win over Yuichi Sugita of Japan on court 1573 at the Murray River Open in Melbourne being hosted at Melbourne Park home of the Australian Open.
The first three games of the match were pretty routine and at 2-1 the number three seed served a double fault giving Sugita the first breakpoint of the match. He quickly responded by serving an ace which saved the breakpoint.
The Japanese native had another crack at a chance to get an early break but once again after a long intense rally the Montreal native came out on top winning a great point and forcing him to hit an error.
He would serve to make it 2-2 and then had two break opportunities of his own and would break Sugita doing a good job forcing his opponent to hit a ball out and taking a 3-2 lead.
The next two games went with serve and the world number 21 had his first set point at 30-40 but was denied by Sugita big serve, unfortunately for Sugita he would throw in an untimely double fault to gift Auger Aliassime another set point which he won to take the first set 6-3.
The second set once again went with serve and at 2-1 the Monte Carlo resident got more chances to break and with his powerful forehand took the crucial break to take a 3-1 lead before consolidating the break.
That break only pushed the Montreal native to finish the job and the next game he played a stellar game as Sugita made some untimely errors as the Canadian was able to get another break and serve for the match.
He did just with some adversity along the way saving a breakpoint with a massive forehand winner down the line and sealing the win as Sugita sent a ball long and Auger Aliassime was through in 65 minutes to the next round.
He will next face Egor Gerasimov in the third round which was originally scheduled on Thursday but due to the cancellation of all matches will be played on Friday.
Day 3 results
On day 3 of the Melbourne Summer Series, there were seven other men’s singles matches at the Murray River Open, Jiri Vesely needed to go the distance with Casper Ruud before prevailing in three sets 5-7, 7-6, 6-3.
Jeremy Chardy beat fellow Frenchman Gilles Simon in straight sets 6-3, 6-4, Borna Coric beat the Fin Emil Ruusuvuori 7-5, 6-4, Aussie native Nick Krygios beat Harry Bourchier in straight sets while American Taylor Fritz beat Federico Coria 6-2, and 6-1.
Bulgarian native Grigor Dimitrov beat Andrew Harris 6-3, 6-3 while Frenchman Corentin Moutet beat the Spaniard Albert Ramos Vinolas,
Friday matches will feature Alexei Popyrin taking on the aforementioned Dimitrov, Krygios takes on the Croat Borna Coric while fellow Aussie James Duckworth will take on Moutet.
The other four matches on the schedule are Jeremy Chardy taking on the American Taylor Fritz, Jiri Vesely taking on the Lithuanian Ricardas Berenkis, Marcus Giron taking on Daniel Evans, and the number one seed Stan Wawrinka taking on another Aussie in Alex Bolt.
