Photo: Martin Sidorjak
Another year, another Australian Open heartbreak for Félix Auger-Aliassime as he is eliminated in the quarter-finals by Daniil Medvedev after the Russian mounted a huge comeback.
The Canadian led by two sets to love, even holding a match point in the fourth set, but the world No. 2 was able to battle back, eventually winning the high-quality affair in five sets.
It’s the second year in a row that Auger-Aliassime has been eliminated from the Australian Open in a match where he was two sets up. This year, after playing two excellent sets where he outduelled the 2021 runner-up from the baseline, he could not maintain his level and eventually falling 6-7(4), 3-6, 7-6(2) 7-5, 6-4 after four hours and 42 minutes.
64 winners were ultimately not enough for Auger-Aliassime, who also committed 75 unforced errors and will be left regretting having only converted two of 11 break points.
Medvedev has now won all four of their meetings on tour.
Through the first two sets, it was Auger-Aliassime controlling proceedings, hitting his big groundstrokes with plenty of margin for error and forcing Medvedev to scramble on defence.
A few double faults in the first set tiebreak from the Russian allowed Auger-Aliassime to take the opening set. He then benefited from some errors to grab an early break in the second set, eventually turning it into a two-set lead.
Auger-Aliassime had chances to close the match out in the third and fourth sets, including a match point on the Medvedev serve at 5-4 in the fourth, but the world No. 2 refused to go away and denied all of the Canadian’s opportunities.
After edging the third set in a tiebreak and the fourth set with a break at 5-all, Medvedev got an early break in the fifth set courtesy of a double-fault from Auger-Aliassime. Once he had the lead, the Russian hung on, saving a few break points including when serving for the match, to complete the comeback.
With Auger-Aliassime’s defeat, there are no Canadians left in the Australian Open.
