-Miami, FL
Hot on the heels of 18-year old Bianca Andreescu’s title at Indian Wells, another Canadian teenager is making news at the second straight big name event on American soil in March. 18-year old Felix Auger-Aliassime reached his first career Masters 1000 Quarter-Final after defeating 17th seed Nikoloz Basilashvili 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 in an hour and 37 minutes in the Fourth Round at the Miami Open.
Auger-Aliassime who, including qualifying, won his sixth straight match becomes the first qualifier since 2007 to reach the Final 8 in Miami and he becomes the youngest Quarter-Finalist here since Andy Roddick in 2001.
The Canadian didn’t get off to a great start on serve in the first set. He faced break points in each of his first two service games. In the ninth game he faced another break point again but a strong forehand into the corner and a pair of big serves got him out of danger.
Two games later Basilashvili was finally able to break through. Back to back miss-hits gave the World No. 19 the first break of the match. Auger-Aliassime however stayed composed and broke back in the following game to even the set at 6-6 after one of Basilashvili’s 27 unforced errors in the match went wide.
In the tiebreak, the native of Montreal fired two of his 13 aces to go up 5-4 and then two more mistakes off the racquet of the Georgian including a double fault, gave the teenager the opening set.
In the second, Auger-Aliassime capitalized early breaking in the opening game. After winning eight of the first ten points in the set it appeared “FAA” was going to cruise the rest of the way. But up a break 3-2, a sloppy service game from Auger-Aliassime culminating with a backhand into the net evened the set at three apiece.
Unfortunately for Basilashvili, he proceeded to offer up a terrible service game of his own immediately after. Auger-Aliassime was able to break right back to go ahead 4-3. That was enough to seal the match. Three games later a Basilashvili groundstroke went long and the Canadian was into the Quarter-Finals.
“It was about finding ways”, said the World No. 57. “I think in the tiebreak, I was able to be a bit more solid and pressure him a little bit more, and it really made a difference. After, I felt like I had an edge over him in the second set, being up a break twice and being able to secure my serve at the end.”
Canadian tennis players are certainly getting more and more recognition not just in their home country but around the world as well. Milos Raonic, Denis Shapovalov and now Andreescu and Auger-Aliassime are all becoming household names for a number of reasons. Raonic’s serve, Shapovalov’s flare, Andreescu’s fight and now Auger-Aliassime are all turning heads as Canada is quickly becoming one of the hottest tennis countries in the world.
“We are definitely seeing it and feeling it,” explained Auger-Aliassime. “But I think it’s all positives. I don’t think anyone sees it as an extra pressure or anything. I think we’re all just enjoying our time and enjoying the fact that we are three young players plus Milos that are playing, you know, good at the same time. Hopefully we can all, our separate ways, we can all keep playing well and motivate us and see how far we can go.”
@Sportshorn
