Quebecer Félix Auger-Aliassime had less trouble than his previous duel at the tennis tournament in Halle when he defeated the American Mackenzie McDonald 7: 6 (7) and 6: 1 in the second round on Wednesday.
• Also read: Berlin tournament: Heartbreaking loss to Bianca Andreescu
The winner is in the quarter-finals and meets Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz, who is 12th in the ATP.
The “FAA” held the ninth season, taking 92 minutes to defeat the 53rd player in the world after taking three rounds to eliminate Marcos Giron in the previous round.
Auger-Aliassime had all 15 aces in the match and broke three, all in set number two. He only had to save his serve once and won 80% of the points played when he had the first balls.
The athlete from the province of La Belle will try to build on his performance from last year in Halle. In 2021 he beat Hurkacz 6-3, 7-5 in the opening round of that competition.
Heartbreaking defeat by Bianca Andreescu
The Canadian Bianca Andreescu narrowly passed the Czech Karolina Pliskova in the second round of the Berlin tennis tournament on Wednesday, but lost in three sets 6: 4, 2: 6, 7: 6 (7th).
The fourth seeded and seventh slugger in the world worked hard to defeat the 69th ranked holder on the WTA circuit. Despite her loss, the Ontarian scooped up a hundred points, two more than her opponent.
Leading 12-2 in Assen, Pliskova had a 67.0% save rate on her first serve, compared to 54.3% for Andreescu. The latter made four breaks in eleven instances, conceding the break three times in six balls.
The maple leaf athlete is still competing in women’s doubles. In addition to the German Sabine Lisicki, she meets the third seeded Japanese Ena Shibahara and the American Asia Muhammad in the second round.
For Shapovalov, lethargy continues
In London, Canada’s Denis Shapovalov lost in singles for the fifth consecutive season, losing to American Tommy Paul in straight sets 6-4 2-6 6-4 in a first-round match interrupted by rain on Tuesday and the following day was terminated.
“Shapo” has therefore not enjoyed the solo victory since beating Rafael Nadal in the round of 16 of the Rome tournament. This time the 15th player in the world played level with the 35th best “tennis player” in the world and picked up 97 points versus 93 for Paul. However, a poor service game caused his loss.
The last few weeks have been bleak for the loser as he is set to lose more than 700 ranking points earned over the past year at the Wimbledon tournament; This year the organization of this event will not award points due to the absence of Russian and Belarusian players.
On the other hand, things are going better in doubles for “Shapo”, who won his second round duel with the Indian Rohan Bopanna, his teammate, in straight sets 6:3 and 6:4 against the Colombians Juan-Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah.