(Melbourne) Quebecer Félix Auger-Aliassime played erratically and lost in the fourth round to Czech Jiri Lehecka on Sunday at the Australian Open.
Auger-Aliassime, seeded sixth in the tournament, committed 45 unforced errors to his opponent’s 33 and lost in four sets 6-4, 3-6, 6-7(2), 6-7(3) .
Auger-Aliassime was trying to reach the quarter-finals of this tournament for the second consecutive year and he was the last Canadian hope in singles, both on the men’s side and on the women’s side.
Lehecka defeated another top seed in Melbourne, after knocking out Croatian Borna Coric (noh 21) and Britain’s Cameron Norrie (noh 11), and he continues his dream journey. He had never won a Grand Slam singles match before the start of this tournament.
PHOTO ASANKA BRENDON RATNAYAKE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Czech Jiri Lehecka
Ranked 71e in the world on the ATP circuit, Lehecka is now waiting in the quarter-finals for the winner of the duel between the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas (noh 3) to the Italian Jannik Sinner (noh 15).
Auger-Aliassime looked confident after winning the first set and he seemed to have the momentum on his side in the third and fourth sets, but he was unable to win the important points.
Auger-Aliassime didn’t seem to have an answer to Lehecka’s play in both ties, even trailing 6-0 in the third set.
The Quebecer finished the match with 20 aces and seven double faults. The Czech had nine aces and three double faults. Both players had 39 winners.
“All the players I’ve faced here are incredible and Félix was hard to beat,” Lehecka said after the game. I had to play my best to beat everyone here. I’m very happy with the way I played against Felix. »
Meanwhile, in women’s doubles, Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and Mexico’s Giuliane Olmos defeated Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic and Jil Teichmann in straight sets 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.
Dabrowski and Olmos have secured their ticket to the third round, where they will face Americans Carolina Dolehide and Anna Kalinskaya. The latter progressed in the tournament after crushing Russians Anastasia Potapova and Yana Sizikova 6-0, 6-1.
Dabrowski also teamed with Australian Max Purcell to defeat Jan Zielinski and Yang Zhaoxuan in straight sets 6-2, 7-5 in mixed doubles. They will now face Australians John-Patrick Smith and Lizette Cabrera in the second round.