It was deja vu for Felix Auger-Aliassime and Egor Gerasimov on Friday at Melbourne Park. For the second time since the beginning of October, they battled one another into a final-set tie-break. For the second time, Auger-Aliassime came out on top.
The #NextGenATP Canadian saved a match point and clawed past the Belarusian 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(6) after two hours and 12 minutes to reach the quarter-finals of the Murray River Open. The third seed will play Czech Jiri Vesely, who defeated Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis 6-4, 6-2, later in the day for a spot in the semi-finals.
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Auger-Aliassime and Gerasimov both won 92 points in the match, but it was the 20-year-old's calm under pressure that paid dividends. The World No. 21 faced a match point at 5-6, 30/40 in the third set, but fended it off behind his second serve. Auger-Aliassime then hit back-to-back aces — his 12th and 13th of the match — to force the tie-break.
The Canadian, who has reached six ATP Tour finals over the past two years, is pursuing his first tour-level title. Auger-Aliassime now leads Gerasimov 3-0 in their ATP Head2Head series.
Frenchman Corentin Moutet advanced to the last eight with a 7-6(4), 6-4 victory against home favourite James Duckworth. The lefty will next play second seed Grigor Dimitrov or Aussie Alexei Popyrin, who are into a third set on Court 3.
from Tennis - ATP World Tour https://ift.tt/36IVhMp
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