Félix Auger-Aliassime defeated Frenchman Hugo Grenier 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 and 6-2 in the second round of the Australian Open tennis tournament on Thursday.
Auger-Aliassime, the 27e seeded, will face in the next round the winner of the duel which will take place a little later today between the Finn Emil Ruusuvuori and the Russian Daniil Medvedev, third seed in the tournament.
The 23-year-old Canadian will then try to match his best career result at the Australian Open, having reached the fourth round of the first major tournament of the season twice so far (2021 and 2023).
It was the first career match between the Quebecer and Grenier, a qualified player who is at 178e global level.
After a rather difficult match to open the tournament against the Czech Jakub Mensik, which continued for almost five hours, Auger-Aliassime was more expeditious this time on court no. 3.
The last representative of the maple leaf still in contention at Melbourne Park was much more incisive than his opponent in the service; he also placed his first service ball in play 72% of the time, compared to only 59% for his opponent. Additionally, he won the point with his first ball 67% of the time, compared to just 48% for Grenier.
Auger-Aliassime was also much more opportunistic in the exchanges, making no less than 40 winning shots, compared to barely 13 for the Frenchman. He also converted eight of his 20 break points, while Grenier only converted three of his 11 break points during the duel.
On the women’s side, Ontario’s Gabriela Dabrowski made her debut in the women’s doubles with her Australian playing partner Erin Routliffe.
The tandem, seeded fourth in the tournament, defeated American Ashlyn Krueger and Czech Linda Fruhvirtova 6-1, 7-5 in the first round last night.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will face Russians Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Veronika Kudermetova in the next round.