Félix Auger-Aliassime broke out in a cold sweat before barely overcoming the German Maximilian Marterer 6-7 (5), 7-6 (6) and 7-6 (3) in the first round of the Tennis Open from Munich, Tuesday.
The 23-year-old Quebecer defeated Marterer after a marathon of three hours and 25 minutes on Bavarian clay. It was the first career duel between the two tennis players.
“Ninety-nine percent of the time you lose a match like this,” Auger-Aliassime said, in comments reported by the tournament website. But today it worked in my favor. »
The Maple Leaf representative trailed 2-5 in the third set and had to serve three times to stay in the match. Marterer even got a match point while Auger-Aliassime was serving at 5-6.
“A crazy match, one of the craziest of my career,” he admitted. In the end, I was lucky. Luck was on my side when I saved that match point. I am very happy to still be in this tournament, and to be able to continue my journey. »
Auger-Aliassime is now 10-9 this season, after being ousted in the second round of the Monte-Carlo Masters last week. For his part, Marterer, who points to 101e world level, is 0-7 in 2024.
In the next round of this ATP 250 series tournament, Auger-Aliassime will face the Japanese Taro Daniel. The latter disposed of Australian Christopher O’Connell 6-3, 6-4 earlier Tuesday.
On the other hand, the Chilean Cristian Garin surprised the German Dominik Köpfer, seventh seed, in two sets of 7-6 (3), 6-3. Garin, 106e world player, will meet in the next round with the American Alex Michelsen.
Austrian Jurij Rodionov easily defeated Australian Aleksandar Vukic 6-2, 6-3, setting the table for a second-round duel against tournament favorite Alexander Zverev of Germany.
As for the Colombian Daniel Elahi, who defeated the Argentinian Camilo Ugo Carabelli 7-6 (2), 6-4, he obtained a meeting in the second round against the Dane Holger Rune, second seed of the tournament.
The Swiss Marc-Andrea Hüsler, the Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp and the German Yannick Hanfmann also triumphed at the end of the program.
Shapovalov is ousted in Romania
Furthermore, Ontario’s Denis Shapovalov was not as lucky as Auger-Aliassime and was ousted from the start at the Tiriac Open in Bucharest, Romania.
Shapovalov, a guest player who clocks in at 121e world rank, bowed 6-4, 6-2 to Frenchman Corentin Moutet in the first round of this ATP 250 series tournament.
The representative of the maple leaf now has a career record of 0-2 against Moutet, 92e world racket.
Moutet will face seventh-seeded Portuguese Nuno Borges in the second round, who beat Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka 3-6, 7-5 and 6-2.