By Richard Pagliaro | Saturday, March 9, 2019
Eighteen-year-old Félix Auger-Aliassime maintained his master of Stefanos Tsitsipas, 6-4, 6-2, flying into the Indian Wells third round for the first time.
Photo credit: Félix Auger-Aliassime Facebook
Midway through the second set, Félix Auger-Aliassime went airborne torching a 102 mph forehand bolt that singed Stadium 1 court.
Leave it to a Canadian to fire a frozen rope in the desert.
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The youngest man in the Top 100 was in full flight for his first career match vs. a Top 10 opponent.
Showing Top 10 skills, Auger-Aliassime played over Stefanos Tsitsipas' head, 6-4, 6-2, flying into the Indian Wells third round and spoiling the 20-year-old Greek's first match as a Top 10 player.
Auger-Aliassime hammers one of the biggest forehands on Tour, but on this day he channeled prodigious power with shrewed placement exploiting the Greek's deep court positioning.
"I'm pretty instinctive," Auger-Aliassime told the media in Indian Wells. "I always have a big belief in myself. I go for my shots. I'm aggressive. And if I can keep on doing that and be even more solid and being more consistent, I think it will bring me to high levels."
Tsitispas, who arrived in Palm Springs coming off successive finals in Marseille and Dubai, had no answers for a confident opponent who handled high-bouncing conditions effectively.
Tsitsipas said Auger-Aliassime plays with "a strange tempo" to his game.
"He played very well, very fast," Tsitsipas said. "It seemed like he was really pumped and really energized today. I don't know if he's like this every time. I mean, most of the times that I played him he was like this. But it's tough playing him.
"He has kind of a strange tempo in his game, and you always feel like he's going to hit very hard, but then you don't really know what to expect, how hard he's going to hit the ball. So you're always caught out of position. But he definitely played very well, and he deserves every single piece of that victory."
An ascendant performance landed the 18-year-old Canadian a spot in the Indian Wells third round against either 21st-seeded Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut or Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka.
A year ago, a then 17-year-old Auger-Aliassime became the youngest match winner at the BNP Paribas Open since it served as the first ATP Masters 1000 event in 1990. Now, a year later, he looks more powerful and polished.
Covering the court beautifully, Auger-Aliassime beat the talented Tsitsipas down with his imposing serve-forehand combination.
Though this was the first professional clash between NextGen stars, Auger-Aliassime had won all three junior matches between the pair, including a 2016 US Open junior semifinal meeting. Past junior success infused the Canadian with the confidence and patterns he used to overpower the first Greek man to crack the ATP Top 10.
"I thought I was able to be pretty aggressive, like all the other matches we played in juniors," Auger-Aliassime said. "That's my style of play. For some reason it fits well with his. I just feel like he doesn't have a lot of openings maybe when I play him. I guess that's maybe what he feels, as well.
"Again, I didn't know what to expect today because he's a completely different player. Again, I believe in myself. I thought I had my chances. But again, I served really well today, so that was obviously a big key."
While Auger-Aliassime showed plenty of dazzle today—he delivered 22 winners compared to 12 for Tsitsipas—it was his discipline that really won this match.
Auger-Aliassime denied all seven break points he faced, including fending off six break points in a frenetic 12-minute hold to confirm his break for 3-1.
Mental maturity and some shotmaking mastery were keys on a day in which Tsitsipas served 83 percent. Working over the Australian Open semifinalist's one-handed backhand, the Canadian broke with a shout for 2-1.
The pivotal game came next as Auger-Aliassime dug in and played big and bold denying six break points in a draining fourth game. The teenager pumped a 126 serve winner wide to save the fourth break point, banged an ace to erase the fifth break point and saved the sixth when Tsitsipas miss-hit a forehand.
After 12 grueling minutes, Auger-Aliassime backed up the break for 3-1.
As the match escalated, the lanky 18-year-old did not blink. Cranking his forehand in excess of 80 mph during rallies, Auger-Aliassime thumped another biting serve down the T slamming a strong hold for 5-3.
Fortified by his ferocious 12-minute hold earlier in the set, Auger-Aliassime was calm at closing time.
The Canadian crunched his 10th forehand winner cruising through a love hold to snatch the 43-minute opener.
Auger-Aliassime can annihilate the forehand with wrecking ball accuracy and his two-handed backhand was also a damaging weapon.
Blasting a backhand down the line, Auger-Aliassime earned triple break point in the seventh game.
The ensuing point showed the Canadian's all-court explosiveness as he dragged the Marseille champion all over the court drawing the error to break for 5-2.
Auger-Aliassime, who dropped just eight points on his first serve, slashed one final serve down the middle closing a commanding victory in 77 minutes to raise his record to 9-5 in a victory that will vault him inside the Top 50.
The teenager is aiming to play without limits.
"I want to win as much as I can," Auger-Aliassime said. "I want to go as far as I can as a player. You know, I don't know what my limits will be, but, you know, I try to work hard every day to go as far as I can.
"I want to probably feel all the emotions that I can feel, you know, on these courts, win as many trophies as I can. Yeah, there is no really limits for me."