Felix Auger-Aliassime walked across the court in Montpellier, where he reached his second final of 2025.

Photo : Open Occitanie

Félix Auger-Aliassime will go for his second title already in 2025 after defeating Jesper de Jong on Saturday to reach the final in Montpellier. The Canadian No. 1 has reached the final at two of his three regular tour events this season, having lifted the trophy last month in Adelaide

In the semis, Auger-Aliassime had to battle against the Dutchman but was the better player at the business end of each set. He managed to hang on to advance to his 10th final on an indoor hard court and 17th overall with a 6-4, 7-6(4) win. 

The serve was solid but it was the ground game where the Canadian dominated, striking 31 winners to his opponent’s 21. De Jong finished with more errors than winners, committing 25 unforced under the constant pressure from Auger-Aliassime. 

Midway through the opening set, Auger-Aliassime started to up the pressure on return. In back-to-back return games at 2-2 and 3-3, the Canadian had a look at love-40. De Jong managed to escape the first time, saving four break points in the game, but he could only hold off the second seed for so long. The second time around, an Auger-Aliassime approach drew a backhand into the net and the Canadian seized the break. 

While he was not as sharp as during his quarter-final win on Friday, Auger-Aliassime was still able to ride his serve once he got the break. He dropped just two points in his final two service games on his way to taking the opening set. 

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Auger-Aliassime had a chance to cement control with a couple of break points in the opening game of the second set but failed to convert. In the fourth game, he suffered a blip on serve, missing back-to-back backhands to give away a love break. But he responded immediately, going up love-40 on de Jong’s serve in the following game and firing a perfect backhand return crosscourt on the third break point to get back on serve. 

At 4-4, the Montrealer had a chance to score a late break but de Jong pulled out a couple of big serves to erase two break points. The Dutchman then had a chance to break for the set in the following game when he whipped out a spectacular forehand passing shot to set up a 15-40, double set point, opening on Auger-Aliassime’s serve. But the Canadian was up to the task, using his big hitting to erase the threat. 

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A brilliant forehand passing shot from Auger-Aliassime gave the Canadian a 3-1 lead in the tiebreak and he never looked back. The Montrealer led the breaker wire to wire and punched his ticket to the final with a forehand winner. 

In the final, we will meet either top seed Andrey Rublev, who leads his head-to-head with the Canadian 5-1, or qualifier Aleksandar Kovacevic.  

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