Felix Auger Aliassime booked his spot in the third round of the Western and Southern Open by beating Karen Khachanov 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4 in two hours and 53 minutes.
The Canadian 12th seed produced 38 winners and 14 aces in the win. It is the first time Auger-Aliassime has recorded back-to-back victories in a tournament since reaching the quarter-finals at Wimbledon. Khachanov ended up hitting 50 unforced errors.
“It was a hard-fought battle, Karen (Khachanov) is in good form especially at the moment and I knew it was going to be a tough one,” he said afterwards.
“We played one of the toughest first sets I have ever played and it was super long with both of us having good chances. In the end, I was one point close in the tiebreak and it was very important to put that disappointment behind me and focus on what was ahead and I was able to fight back really well in the second set after some crazy long games. For me to break him twice in the second set and the third was a great win and I think I served really well. Overall it was a really good win”.
The match started with both players doing a good job holding their service games and the first set would be decided by a tiebreaker. The world number 30 raced out to a 3-0 lead but the Canadian battled back all the way to 3-3 but it was the Russian who got the crucial break at 6-5 and took the first set.
The first two games of the second set went on serve and at 1-1, Khachanov saved 10 breakpoints from the Montreal native but managed to hold serve. Auger-Aliassime managed to get the breakthrough a couple of games later to take a 4-3 lead.
At 5-3 with the Russian serving to stay in the set the Canadian started applying more pressure and managed to earn a set point and secure the break of serve to take the second set and send it to a third set.
Khachanov looking to respond in the third had an early breakpoint in the first game but Auger Aliassime did a good job saving it and held serve. It stayed on serve until 5-4 with the Russian once again serving to extend the match but he failed to do so.
In his post-match press conference, Auger-Aliassime spoke about how pleased he was to get the win against a very tough opponent.
“Montreal was the last time we played so finding a way to beat an opponent that has beaten you before is always good and today I did that well,” he said. “It was a tough three-set match and I felt like I served better than the last time we played so that was a big key today. Physically and mentally I was more stable, solid, and it was a good win for me”.
