Felix delivers super serving day in Marseille

Felix Auger-Aliassime rode a near-unstoppable serving performance to a second-round spot Wednesday at the Open 13 Provence in Marseille.

The seventh-seeded Canadian overcame another man with an imposing delivery, home favourite Quentin Halys, in a confident start to his campaign at the indoor ATP 250. Auger-Aliassime prevailed 6-2, 7-5 in the pair’s maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head clash to build on his semi-final run in Montpellier last week.

“It’s never easy,” said Auger-Aliassime when asked about facing an opponent for the first time. “We’ve practised together before and he’s been on Tour for a few years, so of course I know him, and I know his qualities.

“I think I started the perfect way, hitting my targets and being aggressive, keeping him on defence and without much time. So it was the perfect start and then he was serving too good in the second set until I got lucky with a double fault. I was trying to put pressure on him whenever I had a second serve [to return]. I think I played a very complete match.”

Through in ✌️@felixtennis secures a 6-2 7-5 win over Quentin Halys.@Open13 | #open13provence pic.twitter.com/iLaF2TMoJY

— ATP Tour (@atptour) February 7, 2024

The No. 28 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, Auger-Aliassime won 93 per cent (27/29) of points behind his first delivery against Halys, according to Infosys ATP Stats. The 23-year-old is now 8-3 in Marseille, where he reached the championship match in 2020 and 2022.

“I love playing well here. I have great memories,” said Auger-Aliassime, who plays Zhang Zhizhen in the second round. “Twice a finalist, so obviously I’ve won some matches here but didn’t go all the way to the end. Let’s see if I can be part of another final here, but the week is so young and there is still a lot of tennis to play.”

Emil Ruusuvuori also downed a home favourite on Wednesday. The Finn beat #NextGenATP star Luca Van Assche 7-6(2), 6-4 to advance to face fifth seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.

The first quarter-finalist in Marseille is Tomas Machac, who backed up his opening win against Andy Murray by upsetting sixth seed Lorenzo Musetti 6-3, 6-2. With his 83-minute triumph, the Czech booked a last-eight meeting with defending champion Hubert Hurkacz or Alexander Shevchenko.

In evening action, fourth seed Ugo Humbert and Karen Khachanov also advanced to the quarter-finals. Humbert won an all-French Lexus ATP Head2Head matchup with Hugo Gaston 2-6, 6-1, 6-3, while Khachanov defeated Roberto Bautista Agut 6-2, 6-2.