ATP Tour

Kovacevic stuns Auger-Aliassime, joins Agassi & Sampras in Hamburg history

Aleksandar Kovacevic is making the most of his second chance at the Bitpanda Hamburg Open, where the lucky loser stunned top seed Felix Auger-Aliassime 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 on Wednesday to reach the quarter-finals.

Trailing 1-4 in the deciding set, Kovacevic loosened up and began swinging freely, rattling off five straight games to complete the biggest win of his career over World No. 5 Auger-Aliassime. With his two-hour, 21-minute victory, Kovacevic became the first American quarter-finalist in Hamburg since Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras in 1995.

“When you get a second chance like this, there is a bit of a feeling of, ‘There is nothing to lose out here’,” Kovacevic, the World No. 94, said. “You’re maybe a tad more relaxed. I’m a bit of a pessimist in life, so for me to come back as a lucky loser, I was not super excited about it. Everyone was telling me, ‘You have to be grateful for your second chance. You have to use it.’ It seems like I might be using it this week.”

Interestingly, Kovacevic lost to Athur Gea in the final round of qualifying in Hamburg, only to receive a lucky loser spot and then defeat the Frenchman in the opening round of the main draw. Two weeks earlier in Rome, Kovacevic also entered as a lucky loser but saw three match points slip away against Botic van de Zandschulp.

With his first Lexus ATP Head2Head victory over Auger-Aliassime (1-2), Kovacevic earned the biggest win of his career by PIF ATP Ranking. Unaware of that milestone, the American was instead relieved to see a close contest finally fall his way as he advanced to his ninth ATP Tour quarter-final.

“I wasn’t even aware,” Kovacevic responded. “It’s a good thing I wasn’t, because maybe I would’ve been a bit more nervous out here. I’ve had a lot of tough losses, where the pendulum has just swung the wrong way for me, even a couple of weeks ago in Rome.

“It was just big for me to come through a match like this, especially being a break down in the third, just to get back on the right track. [Auger-Aliassime] an amazing player. I’ve been watching him since I was young, even though he’s younger than me… He’s been killing it.”

Watch Wednesday Extended Highlights:

Kovacevic will face Camilo Ugo Carabelli in the quarter-finals, after the Argentine upset eighth-seeded Frances Tiafoe 7-6(3), 7-6(4).

Ugo Humbert came through his second consecutive deciding-set tie-break to also book his quarter-final spot at the clay-court ATP 500 event. The French lefty outlasted fifth seed Karen Khachanov 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(3) to advance to his third quarter-final of the season after reaching the Adelaide final and Rotterdam semis.

Khachanov arrived in Hamburg after a quarter-final loss to Casper Ruud in Rome. Humbert will next meet qualifier Ignacio Buse, who continued his impressive run with a 6-0, 6-3 victory over Jakub Mensik. Peru's Buse has now earned 16 of his 17 tour-level wins on clay, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index.