Auger-Aliassime tops Grenier to reach third round of Australian Open
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MELBOURNE, Australia — Montreal's Felix Auger-Aliassime defeated Hugo Grenier of France 6-1, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 on Thursday to advance to the third round of the Australian Open.
The Canadian landed 72 per cent of his first serves, compared to Grenier's 59 per cent, in a match that lasted two hours 56 minutes.
"It was a positive win overall today," Auger-Aliassime said. "Hopefully I can keep going."
Auger-Aliassime also fended off eight of 11 breakpoint attempts while converting eight of his 20 opportunities.
The Canadian opened the Grand Slam tournament with a five-set win over Austria's Dominic Thiem in a match that lasted nearly five hours.
Auger-Aliassime, who is seeded 27th in Melbourne, will next face world No. 3 Daniil Medvedev of Russia.
Medvedev scored a five-set 3-6, 6-7(1), 6-4, 7-6(1), 6-0 victory over Finland's Emil Ruusuvuori on Thursday.
"Things will get tougher and tougher as the tournament goes on," Auger-Aliassime said. "But I feel good with my game and I feel like the work that we've done is paying off.
"I think the wheels are in the right direction so I need to stay focused, stay consistent and hopefully keep winning some matches."
In women's doubles, Ottawa's Gabriela Dabrowski and Montreal's Erin Routliffe defeated American Ashlyn Krueger and Czechia's Linda Fruhvirtova 6-1, 7-5 in their opening match on Thursday.
Dabrowski and Routliffe, the reigning U.S. Open champions, will face Russians Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Veronika Kudermetova in the next round.