No. 11 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime is up and running at the Miami Open presented by Itau after a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Pierre-Hugues Herbert on Friday.
The Canadian looked right at home at Hard Rock Stadium, the same venue where he reached the semi-finals in 2019 as an 18-year-old on his tournament debut. That year, Auger-Aliassime won seven straight matches from qualifying before falling to eventual finalist John Isner.
He could get an early rematch against Isner, the 2018 champion, in the third round. Auger-Aliassime awaits the winner between Isner and qualifier Mackenzie McDonald, who contest the last match of the day on Grandstand.
Auger-Aliassime took control of the rallies with his forehand against Herbert, firing 19 of his 24 winners off that wing. The victory improves Auger-Aliassime’s ATP Head2Head record against Herbert to 2-1, after splitting last year’s encounters on the Frenchman’s home turf in Montpellier and Marseille.
“I’m very happy, because it was a tricky first match. I’ve lost to him before, and I won saving match points. So he’s a tricky opponent with a great serve,” Auger-Aliassime said in his on-court interview.
The 20-year-old arrived at the year’s first ATP Masters 1000 event full of confidence after strong results to start the season, including a run to the final at the Great Ocean Road Open and last week's Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC quarter-finals.
Auger-Aliassime took an early lead in both sets and matched the Frenchman’s net-rushing with some of his own, winning five of nine points at the net. But in both sets, he lost the early advantage as Herbert fought back to 4-4. A late break at 5-4 in each set made the difference for the Canadian, who served out the victory to love after an hour and 33 minutes.
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