In an upset day, Montreal survived a tough first set against Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka to qualify for the third round.
Article Author:
Pat Hickey • Montreal Gazette
Félix, from Montreal, had one big upset day. Auger-Aliassime advanced to the third round of Wednesday's National Bank Open, defeating Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka 7-6(6) 6-4.
Auger-Aliassime had to fight to take his first set. He saved his four break points before Nishioka broke to give him a 3-2 lead in the final game against Nick Kyrgios in Washington last week. However, Auger-Aliassime broke back in the next game, with both players holding serve to force a tiebreak.
Auger-Aliassime hit his two aces to give him a 6-3 lead. However, when playing a series of sloppy points, he allowed the Japanese player to return to the set. We found the tiebreak deadlocked at 6-6, including a drop shot that failed to reach the net.
However, the final tied Canadian closed out the set with his backhand winner and forehand passing shot.
Auger-Aliassime won the second set. He broke Nishioka in the fifth game and had break points in the other two games.He failed to capitalize on his points in his two matches at 5-3, but served his I'm out.
The win set up a rematch with ninth-seeded British Cameron Norrie. The two met in the semi-finals in Los Cabos last week, with Norrie winning in three sets.
Norrie advanced easily to the round of 16 with his 6-1 6-2 win over Dutchman Botic van de He Zandschlup.
Great Britain's Daniel Evans defeated No. 5 seed Andrei Rublev of Russia 6-4 6-4 to move into the top five after losing top seed Daniil Medvedev and No. 2 Carlos Alcalaz. I left the tournament without 3 of the seeds. A disturbing Wednesday afternoon.
No. 10 seed Taylor Fritz was riding his jet coaster before defeating fellow American Francis his Tierfoe. Suffering from a stress fracture in his leg, Fritz lost the first set and trailed 0-4 in the third set before coming back six straight games to win 5-7, 6-1, 6-4. did.
In a post-match tweet, Fritz said foot problems appeared to be behind him, but he called for a medical timeout. My vision is blurry and the only thing that can really prepare me to play in these conditions is to play in these conditions.
"I'm sorry if I made anyone worry," he added.
Fritz is from California but has Canadian ties. His uncle, Harry Fritz, played in the Canadian Davis Cup and was a top-ranked player in Canada. In 1982, in the era before the tie-break, he beat Venezuela's Jorge Andrew 16-14, 11-9, 9-11, 4-6, 11-9 in a total of 100 games. It is the record for the most matches played in the match of .
Albert Ramos Vinolas advanced to the third round with his 6-4, 6-2 win over No. 11-seeded Diego Schwartzman of Argentina. He became the third Spaniard to do so.
phickey@postmedia.com
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