(Indian Wells) Félix Auger-Aliassime will only have gone to the Indian Wells Open. The Quebecer suffered elimination in his first match, in the second round of the tournament, against Dutchman Botic Van De Zandschulp.
Posted at 5:40 p.m.
Updated at 5:49 p.m.
Van De Zandschulp, 47and world racket, prevailed 7-6 (4), 6-7 (4) and 6-3. He took advantage of a very bad day serving Auger-Aliassime to win.
The Quebecer fought well, saving no less than five match points and managing to snatch the second set despite all sorts of problems. Van De Zandschulp settled for a simple game by returning all the balls and forcing the 9and world player to make mistakes.
Auger-Aliassime committed eight double faults against three for his opponent in addition to 43 unprovoked errors, almost twice as many as Van De Zandschulp. The latter will face Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic in the round of 16.
Kecmanovic defeated Croatian Marin Cilic, 24and world racket, in three ends of 6-7 (7), 6-3 and 7-6 (6).
In doubles action, Canadian Denis Shapovalov and his Indian teammate Rohan Bopanna defeated the eighth-seeded pair of Briton Jamie Murray and Brazilian Bruno Soares 7-6(4) 6-4 in the first round in Indian Wells on Sunday.
The sidekicks only needed an hour and 28 minutes to get their second-round pass.
Murray and Soares respectively occupy the 20and and the 18and step of the ATP doubles ranking. They struggled on serve, with just 49% (32/65) of their first serve coming in play compared to 63% (40/64) for their rivals.
In the round of 16, Shapovalov’s duo will cross swords with the experienced pair of Mexican Santiago Gonzalez (39) and Frenchman Édouard Roger-Vasselin (38).
Fernandez doubles
In the women’s section of the tournament, after qualifying for the third round in singles on Saturday, Quebecer Leylah Annie Fernandez was back on the court in doubles with her partner, France’s Alizé Cornet.
The duo earned their place in the quarter-final round by winning a tiebreaker 6-2, 3-6 and 10-2 against the pair formed by Laura Siegemund and Vera Svonareva.