DOHA, Qatar — Canadian tennis star Felix Auger-Aliassime defeated Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-4, 7-6 (5) Thursday at the Qatar Open, setting up a semifinal against nemesis Daniil Medvedev.
Auger-Aliassime, seeded second at the ATP 250 hard court event, fired eight aces and won 86 per cent of first service points in a win over the seventh-seeded Spaniard that took one hour 48 minutes to complete.
The 22-year-old from Montreal faced just two break points in the match, with both coming in Game 6 of the second set. Auger-Aliassime induced Davidovich Fokina into unforced errors to come back from 15-40 and scored a crucial hold to tie the set 3-3.
After an unforced error from Auger-Alissime tied the tiebreaker at 5-5, the Canadian rattled off a pair of winners to improve his 2023 record to 7-3.
Auger-Aliassime scored the only break of the match in Game 9 of the first set before serving for the win.
Next up is Medvedev, the Russian third seed who improved his career record against the Canadian to 5-0 with a 6-2, 6-4 win last week in the quarterfinals of the Rotterdam Open, a tournament that Auger-Aliassime won in 2022.
Jiri Lehecka of Czechia and Britain's Andy Murray are the other semifinalists.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 23, 2023.
The Canadian Press
