MELBOURNE, Australia — Montreal's Felix Auger-Aliassime defeated Hugo Grenier of France 6-1, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 on Thursday to advance to the third round of the Australian Open.
The Canadian landed 72 per cent of his first serves, compared to Grenier's 59 per cent, in a match that lasted two hours 56 minutes.
"It was a positive win overall today," Auger-Aliassime said. "Hopefully I can keep going."
Auger-Aliassime also fended off eight of 11 breakpoint attempts while converting eight of his 20 opportunities.
The Canadian opened the Grand Slam tournament with a five-set win over Austria's Dominic Thiem in a match that lasted nearly five hours.
Auger-Aliassime, who is seeded 27th in Melbourne, will next face world No. 3 Daniil Medvedev of Russia.
Medvedev scored a five-set 3-6, 6-7(1), 6-4, 7-6(1), 6-0 victory over Finland's Emil Ruusuvuori on Thursday.
"Things will get tougher and tougher as the tournament goes on," Auger-Aliassime said. "But I feel good with my game and I feel like the work that we've done is paying off.
"I think the wheels are in the right direction so I need to stay focused, stay consistent and hopefully keep winning some matches."
In women's doubles, Ottawa's Gabriela Dabrowski and Montreal's Erin Routliffe defeated American Ashlyn Krueger and Czechia's Linda Fruhvirtova 6-1, 7-5 in their opening match on Thursday.
Dabrowski and Routliffe, the reigning U.S. Open champions, will face Russians Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Veronika Kudermetova in the next round.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Jan. 18, 2024.
The Canadian Press
