Photo : Pascal Ratthe
Félix Auger-Aliassime looked like his old self again on Wednesday at the Cincinnati Open as he cruised past Aleksandar Kovacevic in straight sets in the first round.
After a tiring couple of weeks that included deep runs at the Olympics and then a quick turnaround to play in Montreal, the Canadian was back to firing huge forehands as he overwhelmed his American opponent 6-3, 6-1.
While his winner count was not as high as it can be, just nine with two aces, the Canadian’s big hitting caused Kovacevic problems and the American cracked under pressure, committing 20 unforced errors. Auger-Aliassime broke serve five times, all in a row, in the win.
It took some time for Auger-Aliassime to find his range and get a feel for Kovacevic’s power. The American hung in until 3-all when the Canadian started to take control. He had a 15-40 advantage and, despite Kovacevic saving the first two break points including one with a spectacular forehand off an Auger-Aliassime smash, the Montrealer used his deep forehand to induce an error on a third and take the break.
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As the set went along, Auger-Aliassime began to assert himself more and more. When Kovacevic served to stay in the set a 3-5, the Canadian bullied him around the court with a series of huge groundstrokes, breaking to love to wrap up the opener.
His high level carried over into the second set as Kovacevic could not handle the heat Auger-Aliassime was throwing at him in the rallies. By breaking in the American’s first two service games, the Canadian stretched his run to seven consecutive games from 3-3 in the first to 4-0 in the second.
As the second set went along, Kovacevic started to play his way into some Auger-Aliassime serve games and even managed to reclaim a break with a big forehand winner for 1-4. But he could not defend his own serve against the Auger-Aliassime offensive onslaught and missed forehands on break point in every one of his second-set service games.
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Cincinnati is one of two Masters 1000 events where Auger-Aliasisme has reached at least the quarter-finals twice. His 2024 path is very challenging, however. Next up will be a battle with No. 7 seed Casper Ruud. Their head-to-head is tied 3-3 after the Canadian won both their meetings in 2024, both on clay, including last month in the quarter-finals of the Olympics.
