Montreal’s Felix Auger-Aliassime marked his successful comeback to the court by defeating Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas with a score of 6-3, 7-5 during the Cincinnati Open’s second-round matches on Sunday. Despite being the second seed at this Masters-level tournament, Auger-Aliassime faced challenges in the second set due to windy conditions, initially failing to close out the match at 5-4. However, he managed to break back in the following game and eventually secured victory with a decisive seventh ace on match point.
Reflecting on the match, Auger-Aliassime acknowledged the troublesome wind conditions that affected his serve, particularly in the final stages. He expressed relief at regaining the break and successfully serving out the match, emphasizing the significance of the win after a 40-day break from competitive play since Wimbledon. Auger-Aliassime also mentioned the difficulties he faced health-wise in recent weeks but expressed happiness at returning to competition with a strong performance.
Having struggled in previous encounters against Tsitsipas, Auger-Aliassime celebrated only his fourth victory in 11 matches against the Greek player. His next challenge will be against Juan Cerundolo of Argentina, whom he holds a 2-1 record against. Cerundolo caused an upset by defeating 25th seed Arthur Rinderknech of France in a closely contested match on Sunday.
In the women’s event, Chinese qualifier Xiyu Wang overcame 30th-seeded Leylah Fernandez from Laval, Quebec, in a hard-fought encounter lasting two hours and two minutes. Wang, aged 25 and previously ranked 49th in the world, recovered from a slow start to dominate the second and third sets against Fernandez. The match statistics reflected Wang’s superior performance with 23 winners, 35 unforced errors, two aces, and two double faults compared to Fernandez’s 11 winners, 26 unforced errors, seven double faults, and a single ace.
Fernandez, who reached the round of 16 at the National Bank Open in Toronto the previous week, struggled in her return and service games, winning only three out of 12 return games and seven out of 12 service games. On the other hand, Wang demonstrated a more balanced performance by winning five out of 12 return games and nine out of 12 service games.
