Montreal’s Félix Auger-Aliassime survived six match points before defeating American Tommy Paul 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (6) in a fourth round duel of the BNP Paribas Indian Open Wells which ended shortly before 3 a.m. Quebec time on Wednesday.
Seeded eighth, Auger-Aliassime will take part in the quarter-finals of this tournament for the very first time. He will find the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, seeded number one, Thursday.
Alcaraz advanced to the next round after Britain’s Jack Draper retired earlier in the evening when the Spaniard led 6-2, 2-0.
Facing a 5-6 decline in the third set, Auger-Aliassime found himself on the precipice when Paul won the first three points of 12e game, at the service of the Montrealer, to give himself as many match points.
Auger-Aliassime saved them all and scored the next two points to force a tiebreaker.
The Montrealer, 10e world player, again found himself facing three match points in the tiebreaker when Paul took a 6-3 lead. Never mind, Auger-Aliassime reacted by saving the first two, in his service, and the third, in the service of Paul.
Auger-Aliassime scored another mini-break to take a 7-6 lead and was finally able to seal the victory when Paul returned a powerful serve from the Montrealer into the net from the backhand.
“I always stayed positive, I kept hope, I told myself that I was not that far, that I could come back,” Auger-Aliassime said in an interview whose comments were published on the website. of ATP.
“At the end, when you’re at 0/40 on your serve, you know that… If I win that first point, if I serve well, if I start again, and start again, we’re tied. We take things one by one. It’s very cliché to say, but it always works, it’s the proof. I’m really happy to be out of it. It’s a crazy feeling,” he added.
Auger-Aliassime had 12 aces but seven double faults and his first-serve success percentage was just 58%. Both players scored two service breaks each.
Thursday’s duel between Auger-Aliassime and Alcaraz will be the fourth between the two rising stars of men’s tennis.
Auger-Aliassime won the first three, including two towards the end of 2022 when the Quebecer was experiencing the best moments of his young career.
Meanwhile, Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski and her partner Luisa Stefani reached the women’s doubles quarter-finals following a 6-3, 6-4 victory over New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe and Alexa Guarachi, from Chile.
In the next round, they will face the tandem of Miyu Kato, from Japan, and Aldila Sutjiadi, from Indonesia.