Two-time defending champion and eighth seed Felix Auger Aliassime moved past Sebastian Baez 7-5 6-1 in 75 minutes to advance to the second round at the Swiss Indoors in Basel.
Auger Aliassime has won 11 consecutive matches in Basel and lifted two consecutive matches in 2022 and 2023. The Canadian player won 86% of his first serve points. He is looking to bounce back from his recent defeats in the first round in Tokyo and Shanghai and in the second round in Antwerp.
Auger Aliassime won a tight first set with a break in the 12thgame to clinch the first set when Baez hit a service return long. Auger Aliassime broke Baez to open up a 2-0 lead. The North American player earned a double break in the sixth game to serve for the match and served out the win with his eighth ace of the match.
Auger Aliassime improved to 2-0 in his head-to-head matches against world number 26 Baez following up with a straight-sets win in the Davis Cup group stage match last September, as Canada beat Argentina.
World number 19 Auger Aliassime set up a match against Giovanni Mpetchi Perricard.
Auger Aliassime beat Holger Rune in the 2022 final in Basel to claim his fourth title of that year. In last year’s edition he beat Hubert Hurkacz in the final as a wild card.
Roberto Bautista Agut beat Casper Ruud 6-3 3-6 6-3 after 2 hours and 3 minutes. Bautista Agut converted his first break point in the sixth game and served out the first set with a hold at 15. Ruud converted his third break point in the eighth game of the second set to take a 5-3 lead and served it out on his second set point.
Bautista Agut saved a break point in the first game of the third set. Ruud fended off three break points in a six-deuce fourth game to draw level to 2-2. Bautista Agut converted his second break point in the sixth game to take a 4-2 lead and served out the win on his first match point. Bautista Agut set up a second round match against Denis Shapovalov.
“I am enjoying it on the court. As you can see I feel well after a tough year. I had a lot of pressure and was playing, but as soon as I got a little bit of calm, I could play a bit better and I am enjoying a bit more”, said Bautista Agut.
Stan Wawrinka battled past Adrian Mannarino 6-3 3-6 7-5 in their fourth head-to-match. Wawrinka won the first match of his career against Mannarino, who had prevailed in their previous clashes in Miami in 2015, Astana in 2022 and at the Australian Open in 2024.
Wawrinka raced out to a 5-0 lead with two breaks in the second and fourth games. He came from 0-30 down in both games. Mannarino pulled one break back in the eighth game and held his serve to 15 to reduce his gap to 3-5. Wawrinka served out the first set at love.
Mannarino won the second set 6-3 with his only break in the sixth game. Wawrinka saved a break point in the first game of the third set. Both players went on serve until the 12th game when Wawrinka broke serve on his second match point. Wawrinka hit 32 winners to 44 unforced errors.
