INDIAN WELLS, Calif. – Félix Auger-Aliassime will only have gone to the Indian Wells Open. The Quebecer suffered elimination in his first match, in the second round of the tournament, against Dutchman Botic Van De Zandschulp.
Van De Zandschulp, 47th in the world, won 7-6(4), 6-7(4) and 6-3. He took advantage of a very bad day serving Auger-Aliassime to win.
The Quebecer fought well, saving no less than five match points and managing to snatch the second set despite all sorts of problems. Van De Zandschulp was satisfied with a simple game by turning over all the balls and forcing the 9th player in the world to make mistakes.
Auger-Aliassime committed eight double faults against three for his opponent in addition to 43 unprovoked errors, almost twice as many as Van De Zandschulp. The latter will face Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic in the round of 16.
Kecmanovic defeated the Croatian Marin Cilic, 24th racket in the world, in three sets of 6-7 (7), 6-3 and 7-6 (6).
More details to come
Rublev in the third round
Seventh-seeded Andrey Rublev advanced to the third round by beating Germany’s Dominik Koepfer 7-5, 6-4.
The Russian, recent winner in Marseille then Dubai, will face an American in the next round, Frances Tiafoe or Brandon Nakashima (no 28), opposed during the day.
Rublev took a little time to enter his match, since he was trailing 4-2, before immediately unbreaking, then taking the opposing serve for the second time to win the first set.
The second was also tight. After breaking to lead 4-3, the Russian immediately conceded his commitment, letting his opponent resurface, before taking the lead to win in 1:46.
Shapovalov advances in doubles
Canadian Denis Shapovalov and his Indian teammate, Rohan Bopanna, defeated the eighth pair of sets, that of Briton Jamie Murray and Brazilian Bruno Soares 7-6(4) and 6-4 in the first round.
The sidekicks only needed an hour and 28 minutes to get their pass in the second round.
Murray and Soares sit 20th and 18th respectively in the ATP doubles rankings. They struggled on serve, with just 49% (32/65) of their first serve coming in play compared to 63% (40/64) for their rivals.
In the round of 16, Shapovalov’s duo will cross swords with the experienced pair of Mexican Santiago Gonzalez (39) and Frenchman Édouard Roger-Vasselin (38).
In the women’s section of the tournament, after qualifying for the third round in singles on Saturday, Quebecer Leylah Annie Fernandez was back on the court in doubles with her partner, France’s Alizé Cornet.
The duo earned their place in the quarter-final round by winning a tiebreaker 6-2, 3-6 and 10-2 against the pair formed by Laura Siegemund and Vera Zvonareva.
