Felix Auger Aliassime overcame Quentin Halyl 6-2 7-5 in their first head-to-head clash at the Open 13 in Marseille. Auger Aliassime built on his semifinal in Montpellier last week. Auger Aliassime won 93% of his first service points
Auger Aliassime has a record of 8 wins to 3 defeats in Marseille. The Canadian player reached the final in the French tournament twice finishing runner-up to Stefanos Tsitsipas in 2020 and to Andrey Rublev in 2022.
Auger Aliassime barely dropped any points on his serve in the first set and broke twice in the first and third games to seal the first set 6-2. The Canadian player converted his second break point in the 11th game and held serve to close it out 7-5 on his first match point setting up a second round match against China’s Zhang Zhizhen.
“I think I started the perfect way, hitting my targets and being aggressive, keeping him on defence and without much time. So it was the perfect start and then he was serving too good in the second set until I got lucky with a double fault. I was trying to put pressure on him whenever I had a second serve to return. I love playing well here. I have great memories. I reached the final twice, so obviously I have won some matches here but did not go all the way to the way to the end. Let’s see if I can be part of another here, but the week is so young and there is still a lot of tennis to play”, said Auger Aliassime.
Emil Ruusuvuori beat French Next Gen rising star Luca Van Assche 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 to set up a clash against fifth seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. Both players went on serve with no breaks of serve en route to the tie-break. Ruusuvuori earned two mini-breaks to win the tie-break 7-2.
Van Assche broke serve in the second game to open up a 2-0 lead. Ruusuvuori won six of the next eight games with two breaks of serve to close out the second set 6-4.
Thomas Machac backed up his win against Andy Murray in the first round by beating Lorenzo Musetti 6-3 6-2 in 83 minutes. Machac will face either Hubert Hurkacz or Alexander Schevchenko in the next round. Musetti has not won two consecutive matches since last September in Chengdu.
The first set went on serve in the first six games. Machac earned his first break in the seventh game and held on his next services games to win the first set 6-3.
Machac broke serve in the first game of the second set. Musetti broke straight back in the second game. Machac earned his second break in the third game before saving three break points to hold serve for 3-1. The Czech player broke for the third time in the fifth game. Musetti did not convert a break point in the sixth game. Machac served out the win on his first match point.
