TSN is your home this week for the Abierto Mexicano Telcel, the fourth ATP 500 event of the season, from Acapulco, Mexico with Felix Auger-Aliassime featured in the main draw and action on tap across the Network.

After getting off to a slow start in 2020, Felix Auger-Aliassime has had strong showings at his last two events, making the final in both.

Two weeks ago, Auger-Aliassime made a run at Rotterdam, cruising through his side of the draw before running into Frenchman Gael Monfils in the finals and falling in straight sets.

Last week, the 19-year-old faced some adversity at the Open 13 in Marseille, France, needing three sets in the first and second round before taking his quarter and semi-final matches in straight sets. Ultimately, his tournament came up short, losing to Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final.

The successful runs at Rotterdam and Marseille have seen Auger-Aliassime bring his record on the year above .500 to 12-8.

This week, he looks to capture that momentum and continue his winning ways as he aims to win his first career title on the ATP tour.

In the opening round, Auger-Aliassime will take on qualifier Alex Bolt; the two have already met once this year with the Canadian winning 6-3, 6-0 in the quarter-final at the Adelaide International.

This year, Auger-Aliassime is 4-1 in the opening round of tournaments – with his lone first-round exit coming at the Australian Open.

He enters this tournament as the No. 4 seed, putting him in the bottom half of the draw with Alexander Zverev (2) and Nick Kyrgios (6).

If the Canadian makes it through the opening two matches, he could be faced with a challenging quarter-final against Kyrgios, and a semi-final against Zverev.

The Montreal native has played Kyrgios once, beating him in three sets in 2019, and has a 0-2 record against Zverev, dropping both matches in straight sets (2018, 2019).

If this will be the first ATP Tour title for Auger-Aliassime, he might have to go through one of tennis’ legends in the final, as Rafael Nadal headlines this tournament as the No. 1 seed.

The Spaniard has played in this event four times, reaching the finals three times and winning it twice.

A key part of Auger-Aliassime’s game is getting out to a strong start. In his career, the Canadian is 44-8 when winning the opening set of a match (10-0 this year) and is just 7-33 when dropping the opening set (2-8). 

The teenager is also 4-1 this year in deciding sets (3rd or 5th set) which is much improved from his career mark of 12-13 coming into 2020.