Felix Auger-Aliassime returns the ball to Daniel Altmaier of Germany during their third round match at the Paris Masters tennis tournament at the Paris La Defense Arena, Thursday in Paris.Michel Euler/The Associated Press
Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime advanced to the Paris Masters quarterfinals Thursday with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Germany’s Daniel Altmaier.
The ninth-seeded Montreal native recovered after dropping the opening set, winning 87 per cent of his first-serve points and converting three of 10 break chances.
Auger-Aliassime finished with seven aces and three double faults in the two-hour, 11-minute match.
The win follows his marathon 5-7, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4) victory over France’s Alexandre Muller on Wednesday, when he relied on 21 aces to advance.
“Three sets all week. It’s been a struggle all week,” Auger-Aliassime said. “Just fighting back, I feel like every day. That’s why I came in today knowing it might be tough again.
“Just stay calm, stay patient, and try to find solutions. I tried to dig deep. I know I have solutions within myself, but it’s just about making the right choices and executing right.”
Auger-Aliassime didn’t panic after a sluggish first set and found a way to get to Altmaier’s serve while evening his career record against the German to 2-2.
“I started serving better and better as the match went on. I was struggling with his change of pace on the serve,” he said. “It was just a bit of a mix-up in my mind, where to return. I found a way to pressure him and broke him three times in the rest of the match.”
Currently ninth in the ATP Race to Turin standings, Auger-Aliassime remains in the hunt for one of the final spots at the season-ending ATP Finals. The top eight players on the men’s tour qualify for the event.
Thursday’s win gave Auger-Aliassime 3,395 points in the Race to Turin standings, 290 behind eighth-place Lorenzo Musetti, who has already been eliminated from the Paris Masters.
A win over Monaco wild card Valentin Vacherot in the quarterfinals would put Auger-Aliassime just 90 points behind Musetti, while a tournament victory would put him 510 points ahead.
After Paris, there is little opportunity to make up ground in the race, with only a pair of ATP 250 events running concurrently in Athens and Metz, France, before the ATP Finals start Nov. 9.
World No. 40 Vacherot, who has risen 227 spots in the ATP rankings over the past four months, continued his excellent form with a 7-6 (4), 6-4 win over Britain’s Cameron Norrie in the Round of 16.
Vacherot is on a 10-match winning streak at the Masters level and won the last ATP 1000 tournament in Shanghai, beating his cousin Arthur Rinderknech of France in the final.
Norrie entered the quarterfinal coming off an upset of world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz.
Mboko joins Fernandez in quarterfinals at Hong Kong open
Canada’s Victoria Mboko advanced to the quarterfinals of the Hong Kong Open with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over Alexandra Eala of the Philippines on Thursday.
The third-seeded Mboko hit eight aces and broke Eala five times while winning 67 per cent of her first-serve points.
Victoria Mboko of Canada celebrates a game won against Alexandra Eala of Philippines during the women’s singles round of 16 matches on Day 4 of the Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open on Thursday in Hong Kong.Marcio Rodrigo Machado/Getty Images
The 19-year-old from Toronto will next face sixth-seeded Anna Kalinskaya of Russia.
Mboko joins fellow Canadian Leylah Fernandez in the final eight.
Fernandez, the tournament’s No. 2 seed, advanced Wednesday with a straight-sets, 6-4, 6-1, win over Germany’s Eva Lys.
She’ll next take on seventh-seeded Sorana Cirstea of Romania.