Auger-Aliassime breaks new ground in Montreal, setting quarter-final clash with Ruud

Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, the No 6 seed, reached the quarter-finals of the Montreal Masters by beating No 9 seed Cameron Norrie 6-3, 6-4 at Stade IGA on Thursday night.

Auger-Aliassime, ranked No 9, will face Norwegian Casper Ruud, the No 4 seed, next.

The Montreal native became the first player from the province of Quebec to ever reach the quarter-finals at Montreal, and the achievement was not lost on him.

“I have gone one step further than I did here three years ago. Montreal people are really proud people. We are a small community in the world. We support each other in what we do, especially in professional sport,” Auger-Aliassime said after the match. “When you see an athlete come from the province of Quebec and do big things, people are very proud. It makes me proud to be in that position.”

Auger-Aliassime – Norrie : 5-1

Auger-Aliassime improves to 5-1 over Norrie lifetime, and avenges a loss to the British No 1 last week in Los Cabos. He dropped just six points on serve and made 85 percent of his first serves.

“It’s a very good performance on my part from the aspects of the game that I was in control with, especially on my serve games,” he said. “It doesn’t happen all the time, so I’m enjoying it. I hope I will be able to keep this up for the rest of the tournament. It’s a good performance compared with last week’s match in Los Cabos.”

Auger-Aliassime is quite pleased with the way he has serve in 2022 – for good reason. He has won 84 percent of his service games, a number that his slightly higher than his career average of 82 percent.

“It’s difficult to explain because more and more I’m becoming a good server,” he said. “On grass I served well. I was able to play good matches, playing tiebreakers in third sets. I proved today I can serve well again.”

The 22-year-old Canadian won against Japanese Yoshihito Nishioka (7-6 (6), 6-4) in the previous round of the Coupe Rogers.

Montreal Masters 1000, other last 16 results (Stade IGA, hard, USD 6.573.785, most recent results first):

• Jannik Sinner vs. Pablo Carreno Busta: thursday
• Gael Monfils vs. Jack Draper: thursday
• Marin Čilić vs. Tommy Paul: thursday
• Nick Kyrgios vs. Alex De Minaur: thursday
• Daniel Evans vs. Taylor Fritz: thursday
• Hubert Hurkacz (8) beat Albert Ramos-Vinolas: 6-7 (6), 6-2, 7-6 (3)
• Casper Ruud beat Roberto Bautista Agut (14): 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4), 6-4

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