Auger-Aliassime advances at Cincinnati Masters, Andreescu eliminated

CINCINNATI — Felix Auger-Aliassime advanced to the third round of men’s singles competition at the Western & Southern Open on Wednesday, while fellow Canadian Bianca Andreescu fell in the second round of the women’s draw.

Montreal’s Auger-Aliassime, seeded 12th in Cincinnati, moved on with a 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4 win over Russia’s Karen Khachanov.

Auger-Aliassime had his serve working for him Wednesday. He fired 14 aces in the match and won 90 per cent of first-serve points. 

The Canadian held serve throughout the match and saved the only break point he faced. He had 13 break-point chances against Khachanov, converting three.

Next up for Auger-Auger-Aliassime is a match with fifth-seed Matteo Berrettini. The Italian has won both of his previous meetings with Auger-Aliassime, including a quarterfinal match at Wimbledon earlier this year.

After receiving a first-round bye, seventh-seed Andreescu fell 6-4, 6-2 to Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic.

Muchova, ranked No. 23 in the world, dropped serve to open the match but was broken only one other time when she already had the second set well in hand.

Muchova has five wins over top-10 players in the WTA Tour, and four of them have come this year.

Andreescu, the 2019 U.S. Open champion who is defending over half of her ranking points total this month, fell to 4-6 since returning to action after missing much of the clay-court season due to a COVID-19 infection.
 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 18, 2021.

The Canadian Press