Felix Auger Aliassime is into the semifinals of the 2022 Abierto De Tenis Mifel after beating the California native Steve Johnson in straight sets 6-4, 7-6 in one hour and 49 minutes.
The Canadian serve was on full display as he served 17 aces and only lost one point on his first serve.
“It’s a pretty good stat,” he said when asked about it in his post-match on-court interview. “ I didn’t realize it was that good but I knew it was good and way better than yesterday and I know my serve is a good weapon for me”.
The Montreal native was on the hunt early for the first break of serve in the match and it came in the opening game set up by a mouthwatering passing shot winner.
That one break of serve was enough for the number two seed to take the opening set and is likely on a collision course to face the world number one, Danil Medvedev, in the final on Saturday night.
In the second set once again in back-to-back matches for the world number nine where things got tough and with chances galore for both players who didn’t flinch and the set was decided by a tiebreaker.
Johnson who is an alma mater from USC and played NCAA tennis before turning pro seemed frustrated and out of sorts and the Canadian capitalized on it jumping out to a 6-3 lead and finishing the match in style.
After the match, he was asked about the conditions since his match started a bit later than he did on Wednesday.
It’s nice last night there was a bit of shade to start the match which is never easy but I guess it’s the same for both but it’s still quite humid so I’ll have to recover.”
Auger Aliassime will now face the Brit Cameron Norrie in the semi-finals after he was able to beat the Moldovan Radu Albot in straight sets 6-3, 7-6 in one hour and 52 minutes.
The Canadian will go into that match with a perfect 4-0 record with their most recent meeting earlier in the year in Rotterdam, a tournament the Montreal native won for his first ever ATP title.
