Despite a certain drop in energy, Quebecer Félix Auger-Aliassime made a victorious comeback in his first outing at the Paris Tennis Masters 1000 on Wednesday, winning in three sets of 6-7 (6), 6-4 and 7-6(6) ahead of Sweden’s Mikael Ymer in the second round.
The eighth racket of the ATP has worked hard to savor a 14e triumphs in a row, spending almost three and a half hours on the playing surface with his rival from qualifying.
The 76e world player made life difficult for “FAA” throughout the clash.
After winning the tiebreaker in the opening set, Ymer gave himself a 4-1 lead in the next round. However, the Maple Leaf athlete pocketed five consecutive games to regain control, saving two break points in the final game of the set.
“I kind of found a second wind after saving those break points at 4-1. I played better and better, I hit the balls much better and I served better, indicated Auger-Aliassime, whose remarks were taken up by the website of the ATP. It was pretty epic.
Three hours and 30 minutes on the court, quality exchanges. He made me work a lot at times. It’s a win I’ll definitely remember.”
In the third set, the one who had won his three previous tournaments, in Florence, Antwerp and Basel, took the opposing service to make it 3-2, but it was without counting on the determination of Ymer who brought everyone back to the starting square in the eighth game.
In fact, it took the last two points of the tiebreaker to make a master. The winner took advantage of a too deep strike from his vis-à-vis to conclude the hostilities.
In total, the Quebecer got his hands on 131 points, against 124 for the European.
“I’m pretty tired, but it’s not the time to complain or lament me, he reasoned. I decided to play these tournaments, I won three of them, so I can’t complain. It’s fantastic. […] Here, I only try to do my best. We’ll see how I feel every day.”
Auger-Aliassime will face in the third round the American Taylor Fritz, ninth seed in the competition and 11th in the world, or the Frenchman Gilles Simon, 188th player on the circuit who received an invitation from the organizers.