Quebec’s Félix Auger-Aliassime was back on his feet in Indian Wells on Monday despite beating Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo.
After a hotly contested battle that lasted more than two hours, “FAA” triumphed in straight sets 7-5, 6-4 against the 27th seed.
The Montrealer gave himself a real scare at the end of the duel. On serve for the match he missed two chances to close the books, at 5-3 he was broken by a tireless Cerundolo.
In the end, Auger-Aliassime needed six match points to settle the case of his 24-year-old rival sending a forehand wide.
Despite this win, the FAA certainly wants to improve their ball possession returns. He was dominant when he successfully started the rally on his first try, but only hit 49% of his first serve attempts.
He’ll also want to limit unforced errors in his next match, which will pit him against American Tommy Paul. In his first two duels in California, he signed 25 and 28 respectively.
Auger-Aliassime will try to get his ticket to the quarterfinals ー and, who knows, maybe a duel against Carlos Alcaraz ー on Tuesday.
A bad third run for Leylah
In the women’s singles draw, Leylah Fernandez worked hard before losing in three sets to Caroline Garcia.
The world’s fifth slugger was incisive in the final set to advance to the next round in a 6-4, 6-7(5) and 6-1 win after more than 2:15.
It is the second time this year that the Frenchwoman has eliminated Fernandez using her best assets. In the second round of the Australian Open in January, she won 7:6 (5), 7:5.
The Quebecer gave everything to stay alive in the tiebreak of the second set of the game of the day. In the next set she only won 34% of the points.
Dangerous in possession, with 11 aces and just three double faults, Garcia won 86% of the rallies she initiated with a winning first serve.
Fernandez’s best result this year, 49th player in the world, is a quarter-final defeat at the Auckland tournament.
Garcia meets Romanian Sorana Cirstea in the round of 16.