After Felix Auger-Aliassime’s five-set, three hour and 40 minute victory over Emil Ruusuvuori to begin his Australian Open journey, his coach Frederic Fontang told TSN’s Mark Masters it was just the kind of battle that could set him up for a long run in Melbourne.

Fast forward almost a week later and it’s clear Fontang might have been onto something.

A hard-fought victory over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the second round and a straight sets victory over Daniel Evans in the third has the Canadian rolling into the Round of 16, where he will meet No. 27 Marin Cilic of Croatia.

Watch the match LIVE Sunday night on TSN4, TSN.ca, the TSN App and TSN Direct at approximately 10 PM ET.

Sticking around at a major is nothing new for Auger-Aliassime. The No. 9 seeded Canadian is coming off his best showing ever at a Grand Slam at last September’s US Open, winning his first five matches before being ousted by Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, who ended up beating Novak Djokovic in straight sets in the final.

The 21-year-old from Montreal is on to the second week at a major for the fourth time in the last five, beginning with last year’s Australian Open, where he eventually fell to Aslan Karatsev in the fourth round.  

Auger-Aliassime said he’s come a long way since then.

“I’ve gone deeper in Grand Slams. This is not new territory for me. I’ve been there before, I’ve won here before. I think I’m just more mature, more ready. I think now I’ve proved again and again that I deserve to be where I am so you know now it’s about showing up and playing good tennis and proving my worth,” he told TSN’s Mark Roe.

Asked what was working this time around, Auger-Aliassime pointed to his serve as he fired home 16 aces compared to just three double faults in his victory over Evans Friday night.

“I think my serve is working well. Getting more and more consistent. I think that’s my goal, I can serve really well in matches, so the objective for me is to in the future be able to repeat that match after match, tournament after tournament on every surface. I think I have the technical abilities, have what it takes to be one of the good servers on the tour, so hopefully I can use that to my advantage going forward,” Auger-Aliassime said.

“Really happy how my game is going. We’ll have to keep working and keep advancing in the tournament.”

Auger-Aliassime has some Canadian company in the later stages of the bracket as Denis Shapovalov pulled off the upset 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-3 over third-seeded Alexander Zverev Saturday night to advance to the quarterfinals. He is scheduled to take on Rafael Nadal with a spot in the semifinals on the line.