By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, August 11, 2021
Dusan Lajovic did not drop serve defeating ninnth-seeded Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime 7-5, 6-4 to reach the Toronto round of 16.
Photo credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve
The National Bank Open is quickly becoming the Opportunity Open.
A day after Rafael Nadal followed Big 3 rivals Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer in withdrawing from Toronto due to a foot injury, prominent seeds were shown the door.
More: Williams Sisters and Kenin out of Cincinnati
Dusan Lajovic spoiled ninth-seeded Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime's homecoming breaking twice for a 7-5, 6-4 victory.
It was the 31-year-old Serbian's second straight-sets win over Auger-Aliassime in as many meetings following his 6-4, 6-2 win at the 2020 ATP Cup.
Coming off his first Grand Slam quarterfinal at Wimbledon, Auger-Aliassime's forehand failed him at times as Lajovic wisely targeted the Canadian's forehand return.
"Today I thought I served well, to be honest. I thought the margins were pretty small," Auger-Aliassime said. "If you look at the match overall, the stats, you know, especially in the second set, I felt like I had chances where I could have done better to get a break, to give myself a chance to maybe going three sets, but it is what it is.
"I thought he played a solid match. He served well. He did what he had to. I didn't, I guess, play great when I needed to and, you know, missed a couple of easy balls, a couple of forehands. Yeah, that let me down specifically."
Auger-Aliassime staved off break points in the fifth game. Serving at 5-all, the Canadian was his own worst enemy misfiring on a couple of forehands and hitting a double fault to gift the break to the Serbian. Lajovic took immediate advantage streaking to net to knock off a backhand volley and seal the opening set.
Lajovic carried a simple strategy into the second set: test Auger-Aliassime's sometime flighty forehand and his shot tolerance.
"I felt that with the conditions, with the wind and being so hard to control the ball, and him having really good first serve in most of the match, I felt like any time I have a chance, I should be able to put the ball in the court, make him play, because I felt that he was not really confident enough, especially on the forehand side," Lajovic said. "You know, if you start off the match and you shank a couple of balls and you don't really feel that timing on the ball and the forehand, then it's hard to find that mid-match or whatever. So I felt that important points, I told myself, The ball has to go to that side and just don't worry about, like, don't worry where he's positioned himself. Just make it uncomfortable for him."
The 44th-ranked Lajovic broke for a 2-1 second set lead and wrapped up a one hour, 38-minute victory winning two of his last three service games at love.
Lajovic will play sixth-seeded Casper Ruud for a quarterfinal spot. The 12th-ranked Ruud won their lone prior meeting at the 2020 Buenos Aires.
Aussie qualifier James Duckworth backed up his victory over Taylor Fritz taking down 16th-seeded Jannik Sinner 6-3, 6-4 three days after the 19-year-old Italian captured his biggest career title at the Citi Open in Washington, DC.
Duckworth denied both break points he faced in a one hour, 16-minute win sending him into a round-of-16 clash against top-seeded Daniil Medvedev.
Winless in two prior meetings vs. Cristian Garin, John Isner rocketed 21 aces and saved three of four break points topping the 13th-seeded Chilean 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. Next up for Isner is either fourth-seeded Andrey Rublev or Fabio Fognini.