Felix Auger-Aliassime is into the quarter-finals of the Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco after battling past Sebastian Korda 6-3,6-4.
The Montreal native fired 13 winners in the victory while Korda hit 27 unforced errors in what was the fist ever meeting between the two players. Auger-Aliassime broke his opponent three times in the match and won 82% of his first service points.
“I had a great start that for sure helped to kinda put the nerves away,” the seventh seed said following his win. “You never know what to expect when the match starts, maybe my experience of these matches paid off at the start but I felt when he got comfortable in the match he was playing better and better.’
“The start of the second set was tough both mentally and physically, he raised his level and I had to fight back and win in the end, it was a big challenge Sebastian is a good opponent”
The great start the Canadian referenced is when he was able to apply pressure on the Korda’s opening service game and it took five break point chances but he was able to earn the first break of the match to take a 2-0 lead.
At 3-1 the world number 92 had a chance to get back on serve but was denied by the big Auger-Aliassime serve as he was able to hold before attempting to go up a double break. Korda would stay strong saving those break points and the Montreal native would serve out the first set to take it 6-3.
The second set was an even bigger battle with two young guns going at it with the Canadian looking to finish him off. At 2-1 Korda had a chance to take his first lead of the match and did just that and finally broke the world number 18 to take a 3-1 lead.
Auger-Aliassime responded immediately the following game and broke right back to go back on serve and broke again the following game to take a 4-3 lead before going on to close out the match 6-3, 6-4.
In his post game press conference Auger-Aliassime told Ubitennis how he was able to bounce back after being broken and finishing the match.
” I have shown I can do that before try to stay composed and stay calm and I did well to break right back because I felt like he raised his level, he was playing better and better but I didn’t want to let him get away,” he said.
Auger-Aliassime will next play top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.
