Quebecer Félix Auger-Aliassime surrendered to Australian Alex de Minaur on Monday at the Rome Masters.
De Minaur, seeded ninth, won 6-7 (2), 6-4, 6-4 in their third round match. The marathon duel lasted a little over three hours.
Auger-Aliassime reached the final at his previous tournament in Madrid and lost to Andrey Rublev. This result nevertheless allowed him to climb to 20e world rank.
In the fourth round, de Minaur will face sixth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece. Tsitsipas defeated Briton Cameron Norrie, 27e top seed, 6-2, 7-6 (1).
Auger-Aliassime had trouble serving, committing 13 double faults. He placed only 51% of his first balls in play and won only 43% of the points contested on his second ball.
The match started well for Auger-Aliassime, 18e seeded, while he broke the service of de Minaur from the start, and to zero. He maintained this advantage until the sixth game, when his rival responded by breaking his serve.
Both players were then perfect on serve, forcing a tiebreaker that the Quebecer dominated.
In the second set, de Minaur got the key break of serve in the ninth game, only to have an opportunity to serve for the set. Auger-Aliassime had a break point in the next game, but was unable to take advantage. De Minaur closed the books at his first opportunity.
De Minaur took control of the final set by breaking Auger-Aliassime’s serve in the third game, but the Quebecer responded in the sixth game, returning to equal service.
Once again, it was in the ninth game that de Minaur got the key break of serve. He quickly ended the match on the first match point.