All good things come to an end. Félix Auger-Aliassime lost 3-6, 6-7 to Stefanos Tsitsipas in the second round of the Paris Tennis Masters.
Auger-Aliassime has been on a hot streak recently, having won six in a row. He also took the opportunity to successfully defend his title at the indoor tournament in Basel, Switzerland last weekend.
Tsitsipas, however, blocked his path on Wednesday at the Palais omnisports de Paris-Bercy. The Greek dismissed him after a duel of one hour and 48 minutes of play.
He now has a 6-3 record against the 23-year-old from Quebec. Their last meeting took place in the final of the indoor tournament in Rotterdam, Netherlands in 2022, and Auger-Aliassime won to win the first title of his career.
The seventh seed at the Paris tournament will face the winner of the match between France’s Ugo Humbert and Germany’s Alexander Zverev in the round of 16.
Auger-Aliassime did not start the match with as much confidence as the day before against Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff.
The Maple Leaf representative suffered a first break of serve in the fourth game, after sending his forehand out of bounds. Tsitsipas then led 3-1. Auger-Aliassime could not turn things around after that, and the Greek, ranked sixth in the world, won the first set 6-3.
Auger-Aliassime did not seem unduly bothered by the fact that he conceded the first lap. On the contrary Backed by an incisive forehand and good variety in his shot selection, as was the case the day before against Struff and in his last few games, he unsettled Tsitsipas and quickly took control 3- 0 in the second round.
The formidable Greek, however, hurt the Quebecois, who first let slip three set points at 5-2, before falling victim to a break in the ninth game to cut the gap to 5-4. Both players then pushed the match to a tiebreaker, and Tsitsipas made sure he didn’t have to play a final set (7-4).
Auger-Aliassime outshot her opponent 9-1 in aces, but also committed three double faults. Tsitsipas, meanwhile, was more formidable on her second serve, winning 65 percent of points in that phase of play, compared to just 16 percent for Auger-Aliassime.
Quebec, which has five titles on the ATP circuit, also lacked opportunism in a rest situation. He converted only one of his seven chances, compared to two of Tsitsipas’ four.
Then, at the end of the program, Auger-Aliassime and her American playing partner Sebastian Korda took the measure of Argentina’s Sebastián Báez and Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti 7-5, 6-3.
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