Auger-Aliassime Defends Swiss Indoors Basel Title

Photo : @montrealgazette

Felix Auger-Aliassime is a title winner once more.

Today, he claimed his second title at the Swiss Indoors Basel in as many years after defeating Hubert Hurkacz of Poland in straight sets 7-6(3), 7-6(5) in the finals.

His victory today marks the first time a Canadian defends an ATP title since Milos Raonic did it in San Jose in 2011 and 2012.

En route to the finals, Auger-Aliassime bested Swiss Leandro Riedi, Dutch Botic van de Zandschulp, Alexander Shevchenko, and Holger Rune, who was the tournament’s top seed. Aside from his victory against Shevchenko, all of Auger-Alassime’s wins came in straight sets.

Though the pattern of winning the matches in straight sets continued into the finals, Hurkacz didn’t go down without a fight, forcing both sets into tiebreakers. Due to that, the match was certainly on the longer side, but it was a thrilling finale to a masterful comeback story for Auger-Aliassime.

Auger-Aliassime dominated in his service games in the opening set and had the lone break-point opportunity, which Hurkacz fended away in the fourth game. The Canadian kept 68 per cent of first serves in play and won an impressive 96 per cent of those points.

In the tiebreak, Auger-Aliassime dictated the majority of the points, earning two mini-breaks to take it by a score of 7-3.

Auger-Aliassime continued his infallible service games into the second set, dropping only four points on his serve. He had several more opportunities to break Hurkacz, however, the World No. 11 managed to turn aside the four break points faced in the ninth and 11th games. Despite falling behind 2-0 in the tiebreak, Auger-Aliassime rebounded quickly, winning the next four points en route to claiming his second Swiss Indoors Basel title.

With a key win in Switzerland, Auger-Aliassime will retain the 500 points he won in 2022 and will maintain his position as 19th in the world rankings.

Written By

Tennis Canada