Seventh seed Felix Auger Aliassime saved two match points in his 6-7 (3-7) 7-6 (8-6) 6-3 over Italy’s Stefano Travaglia after 2 hours and 31 minutes to reach the second round at the Open 13 Provence in Marseille.
Travaglia fought back from 3-5 down in the opening set to win the tie-break 7-3. Auger Aliassime rallied from 4-6 down by winning four consecutive points to clinch the tie-break of the second set 8-6 forcing the match to the third set.
Auger Aliassime fended off two break points in the third and fifth games of the third set and earned his only break to open up a 4-1 lead. The young Canadian player closed out the match with a hold at 15 on his second match point in the ninth game.
Auger Aliassime will take on Frenchman Pierre Hugues Herbert, who dropped five first service points in his 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 win over Mikhail Kukushkin after 1 hour and 49 minutes.
Alexander Bublik came back from one set down to beat Benoit Paire 3-6 6-4 6-4 after 1 hour and 37 minutes. The Kazakh dropped just 11 points and earned one break in the second and third sets to reach the next round.
