Quebec’s Félix Auger-Aliassime didn’t have an easy time against Belarusian Egor Gerasimov in the first round of the Rotterdam tennis tournament on Wednesday, but he won in three sets of 3-6, 6-2 and 6 -2.
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The competition’s third seed and ninth ATP player needed more than two hours to defeat his 126-ranked qualifying rivaland level of the professional circuit.
Auger-Aliassime maintained an efficiency percentage of 59% on his first serves. He made five breaks in 11 occasions, but conceded three.
In his next duel, the Maple Leaf player will do battle with Briton Andy Murray or Kazakh Alexander Bublik. The two men had an appointment later in the day.
Elsewhere, Auger-Aliassime was due to return to the playing surface for a second-round doubles clash alongside Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz. The duo will face German Tim Puetz and South African Lloyd Harris.
Eliminated from the start in singles, Ontario’s Denis Shapovalov got off to a good start in doubles, along with Indian Rohan Bopanna. The duo defeated Frenchman Édouard Roger-Vasselin and Kazakh Andrey Golubev 6-3 and 6-4. His next opponents will be the fourth seeds, the Dutchman Wesley Koolhof and the Englishman Neal Skupski.