M 1000 MIAMI OPEN. by Emiliano Naftali .
Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime pulled out a tough 7-6 (5), 7-6 (8) win over Brazil’s Thiago Monteiro on Saturday to advance to the third round of the Miami Open.
The Montreal native fired 12 aces and 32 winners, while winning 86 per cent of first-serve points.
“After the first set, I felt a little bit better,” said Auger-Aliassime after his win. “I was giving myself chances… He came up with some good serves and great shots every time, so [I just had to] keep driving, keep trying, keep moving forward and keep staying positive. I think that was the key today, to just stay strong mentally.”
“I was serving pretty good,” said Auger-Aliassime. “Unfortunately I couldn’t close it out at 6/4 [in the second-set tie-break] with a double fault but honestly, throughout the match, I felt good. Considering the conditions too. It was super windy, so to serve like this, on the big points, that was key today.”
Monteiro had four aces, 19 winners and won 75 per cent of first-serve points. But the Brazilian was held without a break point chance and committed 25 unforced errors.
The fifth seed won 86 per cent (37/43) of points behind his first delivery and sent down 12 aces to improve his ATP Head2Head record against Monteiro to 3-0.
Photo Gabriel Matteazzi @NEXTENNIS 