Quebec’s Félix Auger-Aliassime overcame a bad start to defeat Australian Jason Kubler in three sets of 4-6, 6-1 and 6-4 on Tuesday in a second-round duel at the tennis tournament in Doha.
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Second favorite of the competition and holder of the ninth rank of the ATP, the winner took 2 h 16 min to have the 74e player on the professional circuit.
Having earned a bye into the second round, Auger-Aliassime needed an early break in the third set to secure the win. His 15-4 dominance in aces certainly helped him, as did his 37 points won out of a possible 46 with first serves in hand. He took the opponent’s serve three times in six occasions and conceded his own once.
In the next round, “FAA” will face the Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, seventh seed and 31st player in the world, or the South Korean Soonwoo Kwon, 68th. Russian Andrey Rublev is the tournament favorite.