ATP Marseille: Felix Auger-Aliassime doesn't stop at Jo-Wilfried Tsonga either
Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime is in the quarter-finals of the indoor hard court event in Marseille after beating crowd favorite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in two sets.
by Stefan Bergmann
last edit: Feb 17, 2022, 08:42 pm
Felix Auger-Aliassime is currently unstoppable: The 21-year-old, who won his first ATP Tour title in Rotterdam last week, sat down in the round of 16 of the ATP World Tour 250 tournament in Marseille (France) against local hero and crowd favorite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7: 6 (2), 6: 2. The Canadian had a bye in the first round. In the round of the last eight, the number three of the indoor hard court event has to deal with the five-ranked Belarusian Ilya Ivashka (ATP 49), who defeated Stefano Travaglia (ATP 119) from Italy 6: 1, 6: 3.
Top seeded Tsitsipas continues
Against the former world number five from Le Mans, Auger-Aliassime extended his playful run and increased it to six wins in a row: “I had three days to rest and recover. It's a situation we're used to. I'm confident, so I can't complain. It's better to play more matches than too few. But it's important to refocus myself." In 2020, the current number nine in the ATP rankings had already made it into the final in the southern French port city, but had to give it up against Stefanos Tsitsipas at the time.
Apropos: The Greek, top seed on the Cote d'Azur, defeated local hero Hugo Gaston in his round of 16 game on Thursday evening after 1:29 hours of play 6: 3, 7: 6 (4) and in the quarter-finals he meets the Russian qualifier Roman Safiullin, who defeated the Czech Tomas Machac in a highly dramatic duel 6:7 (6), 6:4, 7:6 (4). In the first round, Safiullin had exactly the same match result against seventh-ranked Australian Alexei Popyrin. The 24-year-old was on the pitch for 5:22 in his first two games in Marseille.