Canadians hit the courts in Mexico: Auger-Aliassime and Fernandez win, Raonic falls

It was an exciting evening for Canadian tennis fans with three homegrown heroes in second-round action. Eyeing their respective quarterfinals were Félix Auger-Aliassime and Milos Raonic in Acapulco and Leylah Annie Fernandez in Monterrey.

Quick win for Fernandez

At the Abierto GNP Seguros in Monterrey, Fernandez extended her winning streak with a quick triumph over No. 151 Kristina Kucova of Slovakia, 6-1, 6-4 in just 67 minutes.

Leylah will now compete in her first quarterfinal since March 2020. Waiting in the wings is No. 28 Viktoria Kuzmova of Slovakia, who defeated Britain’s Harriet Dart, 6-4, 6-3. Coincidentally, Fernandez’s last tour-level quarterfinal was also in Monterrey, where she was ousted by Elina Svitolina in two tight sets, 6-4, 7-5.

Second quarterfinal of 2021 for Félix

At the Abierto Mexicano Telcel, World No. 18 Félix Auger-Aliassime earned a two-set victory over fellow 20 year old Sebastian Korda, 6-3, 6-4 to reach his second quarterfinal of the year after the Murray River Open last month, where he finished runner-up.

Coming off a resilient win over Tennys Sandgren of the US, Félix was solid against his American opponent on Wednesday evening, anchored by a first-serve percentage of 82%. The Canadian kept his cool when Korda attacked, demonstrating impressive defence from all corners of the court, and successfully fought off four of five break points.  

Auger-Aliassime will square off with either John Isner or Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarter-finals.

Milos sent packing by Dominik Koepfer

Despite his best efforts, Milos Raonic fell in two sets (6-4, 6-2) to No. 71 Dominik Koepfer in their second-round encounter in Acapulco, played just next door to his compatriot’s winning encounter with Korda. The German southpaw was relentless, winning over 76% of his service points and making few errors for Raonic to capitalize on, ultimately coming back from *2-4 in the first set to win 10 of the next 12 games.

The Canadian No. 3 will head to Miami next for the Miami Open presented by Itau, the first Masters 1000 event of the 2021 season.