Canada had a hat trick at the Italian Tennis Open on Tuesday: Quebec’s Félix Auger-Aliassime and Ontario’s Bianca Andreescu and Denis Shapovalov all won their matches on Tuesday under different circumstances.
Auger-Aliassime had to come from behind and needed around three hours to eliminate Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-2 in a second-place duel. round.
Earlier in the day, Andreescu qualified for the second round of the tournament following the retirement of Britain’s Emma Raducanu.
Between those two matches, Shapovalov earned his ticket to the third round with a straight-set 6-4, 7-6(5) win over Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili.
After conceding the opening set following a break of service in the ninth game, Auger-Aliassime forced the presentation of a deciding set by scoring successive points during the tiebreaker when he was not in the game. service that gave him a 5-2 lead.
The Montreal player then took control of the third set by breaking in the fifth and seventh games, which gave him a 5-2 lead.
Back injury
For his part, Andreescu won the first set 6-2 and led 2-1 in the second set when Raducanu, 10and seeded, retired due to a back injury.
Raducanu’s troubles surfaced quickly. Andreescu scored his first break in the third game of the match, then broke 3 in 11 chances without facing a single break point. The Canadian also won 84 percent of the points on her serve.
This duel between Andreescu and Raducanu featured two former US Open women’s singles champions.
Andreescu won this tournament in 2019 against Serena Williams, and Raducanu got his hands on the commemorative trophy in 2021, after his victory against Quebecer Leylah Annie Fernandez in the grand final.
Less difficult battle
As for Shapovalov, he had a less trying day than his first outing of the tournament, which pitted him against local favorite Lorenzo Sonego.
During this match, which lasted more than three hours, the Canadian was particularly impatient because the crowd had booed him after he had protested against a decision of a linesman.
This time around, Shapovalov only needed 1 hour and 40 minutes to defeat his opponent.
Despite committing four double faults, Shapovalov was efficient on serve, racking up seven aces and giving up only one break chance, which he saved. He hit 70 percent of his first serves, and won 85 percent of the points after placing his first ball in play.
Shapovalov got a service break in the first set and built a 5-1 lead in the second set tiebreaker. Basilashvili managed to reduce the Canadian’s lead to 6-5, but Shapovalov broke his opponent’s serve on the next point to end the duel.