Felix Auger-Aliassime is into his first-ever quarterfinal at Wimbledon after beating the German fourth seed Alex Zverev 6-4, 7-6, 3-6, 3-6, 6-4.
The marathon encounter saw constant changes of momentum through their Court One clash which lasted four hours and 32 minutes. However, the Canadian prevailed with the help of 17 aces and 54 winners in the match.
” It’s a dream come true and it’s unbelievable, you dream of moments like this as a kid and I’m a normal guy from Montreal, Canada,” the world No.19 said afterwards. “Here I am on court one at Wimbledon with a packed crowd. So far it’s the biggest win of my life.”
The first three games went on serve until 2-1 when the Canadian had a chance to break but was quickly saved by the German. Then it was the world number six who had two chances to break the following game and managed to snag the first break of the match.
At 4-2, Zverev had a chance to go up a double break but the Montreal native saved both break points he faced and held serve before breaking right back the very next game to go back on serve at 4-4. At 5-4 with Zverev serving to stay in the set the Canadian got a look at a set point and took to win the first set.
The world number six responded in the second set’s opening game by getting the early break and kept it once again until 4-3 when the world number 19 broke the German to love to go back on serve once again at 4-4. The second set headed into a tiebreaker where Auger-Aliassime jumped out to a 4-1 lead before the German stormed back to win the next three points in a row, but at 7-6, the Canadian took the set with a forehand winner.
The third set stayed on serve with a bit of a scary moment occurring when Zverev took a dive and fell and took a quick visit by the trainer before getting back up and continuing to play. At 3-2, the German broke again to take a 4-2 lead and he served out the set to take it 6-3 sending it into a fourth set looking for the comeback.
Zverev kept the momentum going into the fourth and broke the Canadian in the set’s opening game and at 5-3, the German broke again to take the fourth set and force a fifth and deciding set.
The Canadian was keen to stay in the match and earned two breakpoints in the opening game of the decider with a sensational forehand winner and the German would double fault to give the break.
After a 15-20 minute rain delay, Auger Aliassime returned and consolidated the break. He had three chances to go up a double break in the next game but was denied. .
In the very next game, Zverev would respond by breaking the Montreal native to love to go back on serve at 2-2 but the Canadian bounced back at 3-3 to regain the break and serve out the match.
”It was super difficult and the fact that I have never beaten him before,” said the 20-year-old. “He is such a great player and I always struggled against him.
“I had the belief but he started playing better and things got difficult and when he came back from that break in the fifth set I really had to dig deep”.
Auger Aliassime will now face the Italian Matteo Berrettini in the quarter-finals on Tuesday.
In other Canadian-related news, Denis Shapovalov cruised to a straight-set victory over the Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut 6-1, 6-3, 7-5 hitting 52 winners and serving 16 aces in the victory.
Shapovalov will now face Karen Khachanov in the quarter-finals after the Russian beat the American Sebastian Korda in five sets 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 5-7, 10-8.
This is the first time two Canadians are in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon.
