Montreal’s Félix Auger-Aliassime continued his irresistible streak of October by eliminating world number one Carlos Alcaraz 6-3, 6-2 on Saturday in the semi-finals of the tennis tournament in Basel, Switzerland.
In the lands of the legendary Roger Federer and facing the one many observers see as the future monarch of men’s tennis, Auger-Aliassime was absolutely imperial.
In a long-awaited duel which only lasted 81 minutes, Auger-Aliassime was once again intractable on the serve.
He scored nine aces, didn’t double fault and faced just one break point in the very last play of the match. This game was the only one where Alcaraz managed to win more than two points on Auger-Aliassime’s serve in the same game. In addition, Auger-Aliassime created eight break chances and converted three.
In addition to signing a 12th consecutive victory, and a third in as many career clashes against Alcaraz, Auger-Aliassime will have the chance to win a third tournament in as many weeks, Sunday, against the winner of the match between the Dane Holger Rune and Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut.
Two weeks ago, Auger-Aliassime won the tournament in Florence, Italy, before triumphing last weekend in Antwerp, Belgium.
Auger-Aliassime takes control
Auger-Aliassime was the first to threaten the opponent’s serve, when he gave himself two break chances in the fourth game of the first set.
Alcaraz saved the first with a service winner and the second when the Montrealer performed a backhand that fell out of bounds.
Four games later, Auger-Aliassime took advantage of an even better opportunity, and this time he didn’t let it pass. Eyeing three break points, he converted the first when Alcaraz sent a forehand over the baseline.
With this 5-3 lead, Auger-Aliassime consolidated the break and completed the first set in 39 minutes by winning the four points on his serve, including his fifth and sixth aces of this first set.
The first break in the second set happened much faster, in the third game. And the 19-year-old Spaniard probably thought it all happened very quickly!
Auger-Aliassime earned his second break of the game by winning all four points on serve for Alcaraz, the last of which when he performed a splendid parallel backhand that ended up on the sideline, on a first serve.
Auger-Aliassime picked up a third break in the seventh game, which gave him the chance to end the game on his serve.
After erasing Alcaraz’s lone break chance, Auger-Aliassime sealed the win with a serve that the Spaniard couldn’t return to the other side of the net.
Elsewhere, in Vienna, Ontarian Denis Shapovalov faces Croatian Borna Coric for a place in the final on Sunday against Russian Daniil Medvedev.
The latter eliminated Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in straight sets 6-4, 6-2 in the first semi-final of the day.