Photo: Martin Sidorjak
Félix Auger-Aliassime’s grass-court domination continues.
After four hours and seven minutes of play, the World No. 19 defeated Alexander Zverev of Germany 6-4, 7-6(6), 3-6, 3-6, 6-4 in the round of 16 at Wimbledon.
Auger-Aliassime advances to his first Grand Slam quarter-final and improves his grass-court record to 9-2 on the season.
With his compatriot Denis Shapovalov winning earlier in the day, it now marks the first time that two Canadian men’s players make the Wimbledon quarter-final in the same year.
Auger-Aliassime didn’t start today’s contest the way he would have liked. He committed two double faults in the opening game and went down 30-40 early. He managed to save the break point, but was eventually broken by Zverev in the fifth.
In the seventh game, Zverev had three break point opportunities and would have served for the set if he had converted on any of those chances. However, Auger-Aliassime fended them all off and then delivered back-to-back aces to stay within striking distance of the World No. 6.
The following game was filled with errors from the German. A double fault from Zverev set up an Auger-Aliassime break point, which the Canadian converted off of a deep backhand miss from Zverev.
Auger-Aliassime held his next service game and took a 5-4 lead. Then, another untimely double fault from the German in the 10th gave Auger-Aliassime another look at break, this time to win the set. Zverev sent a forehand in the net and Auger-Aliassime stole the first set, one he once trailed 2-4.
Zverev had eight double faults and 16 unforced errors in the opening set.
The German’s second serves continued to be an issue in the second set.
Zverev managed to break Auger-Aliassime’s first service game, but he couldn’t hold onto the break advantage in the eighth when he practically gifted the Canadian a game, committing two double faults, one of which was on break point.
The servers won their remaining service games to send the second set to a tiebreak.
Auger-Aliassime opened up the tiebreak with a ferocious ace – one of his seven in the second set. He then saved a Zverev set point and converted on his lone set point chance to take a 2-0 set lead.
Heading into today’s match, Auger-Aliassime had a 6-1 record when winning the first two sets. His only loss came against Aslan Karatsev of Russia in the fourth round of the 2021 Australian Open.
The third set was much cleaner from Zverev. He kept 88 percent of first serves in play and won 90 percent of points off his first serves. The German took the set comfortably.
Zverev carried that momentum into the fourth set, as he dominated the majority of the play, broke Auger-Aliassime’s first and last service games, and set up a deciding fifth set.
However, that momentum faded away quickly. Three double faults from Zverev in the opening game gave Auger-Aliassime the early decider lead. Surprisingly, that was the first time in the match that Auger-Aliassime broke first.
Following that game, the dreaded Wimbledon rain struck and interrupted play momentarily.
Once the match resumed, a fired-up Auger-Aliassime was able to hold to love on his service game to take a 2-0 lead.
Zverev managed to save the three break points he faced in the third game. He then broke Auger-Aliassime in the fourth to tie the set at two games apiece.
Auger-Aliassime didn’t let the missed opportunity shake him, as he went on to break Zverev in the seventh game to take the lead.
Serving for the match, Auger-Aliassime made no mistake and closed it out on his second match point to beat Zverev for the first time in his young career.
The Canadian will now face World No. 9 Matteo Berrettini of Italy on Wednesday in the Wimbledon quarter-final.
