(Los Cabos) Propelled by a sparkling service performance, Montreal’s Félix Auger-Aliassime advanced to the semi-finals of the Los Cabos Tennis Open on Thursday night with a 6-4, 7-6 victory (3) against American Steve Johnson.
Posted at 9:22
Auger-Aliassime, who will celebrate his 22e birthday Monday — a day that will coincide with the start of the official National Bank Open in Montreal — had 17 aces and only three double faults.
Above all, he won 33 of the 34 points that were disputed after he lodged his first service ball in play.
Second seed and ninth player in the world, Auger-Aliassime did not concede any break chance to Johnson while the latter had to defend against eight break points. The 32-year-old American saved seven, but not the one he faced in the very first game of the game.
Auger-Aliassime won all five points played on his serve in the tiebreaker and made successive mini-breaks on the eighth and ninth points.
In the semi-finals, Auger-Aliassime will face the winner of Thursday evening’s match between Radu Albot of Moldova and Cameron Norrie of the United Kingdom.
The other semi-final will bring together the Russian Daniil Medvedev, favorite of the competition, and the Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic, seeded fourth.
Medvedev eliminated Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania 6-2, 6-2, while Kecmanovic defeated American Brandon Nakashima 6-2, 6-4.