Photo: ITF/Paul Zimmer
With the red dirt of Roland-Garros under his feet, Félix Auger-Aliassime at long last slew the dragon that is Daniil Medvedev to reach the Olympic quarter-finals in Paris.
After losing all seven previous meetings to the former US Open champion, the Canadian delivered a clinical performance in their first clash on clay, giving Medvedev nothing to work with in a 6-3, 7-6(5) victory at the Summer Olympics.
It was always going to take a near-perfect performance from Auger-Aliassime to finally get that elusive win over Medvedev but that is what the Canadian delivered on Wednesday. He won 88 per cent of his first serve points, losing just five overall. Not only did Auger-Aliassime not face a single break point, he was never even pushed to deuce on his own serve.
Even once the rallies got going, the Canadian used his looping groundstrokes effectively to control the rallies, striking 26 winners, nearly three times his opponent’s 10, while only committing one more unforced error, 18 to 17.
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Through the early stages of the first set, there was little between the two men as they both held serve with relative ease. Auger-Aliassime had one look at a break point in the fourth game when Medvedev missed a forehand but could not convert.
Rain came at a critical moment late in the set just when the door was opening for the Canadian as he led love-30 on his opponent’s serve at 4-3. He did not let the hour-long delay stop him however.
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Coming out of the pause, Auger-Aliassime won the first point to go up love-40 and then fired a backhand down the line that was too much for Medvedev to handle, seizing a 5-3 lead. He promptly served out his first set against his rival since their epic 2022 Australian Open quarter-final.
Early in the second set, the Canadian had chances to take full control of the match with break points in each of Medvedev’s first two service games but was unable to convert. But with the way he was cruising on serve, he was able to keep the pressure on his opponent.
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After generally being the dominant player all match, Auger-Aliassime looked to be in trouble when he double-faulted to go down a minibreak at 3-4 in the tiebreak. But he made up for it with a huge forehand down the line on the next point and then Medvedev returned the favour with a double fault of his own to set the Canadian up to serve out the match.
A big serve set up a pair of match points and while he narrowly missed the first with a drop half-volley, Medvedev mistimed a serve-and-volley, dumping the ball into the net to hand Auger-Aliassime his first win in the rivalry.
Auger-Aliassime is now one win away from playing for a medal but it will not be easy. His reward for finally defeating Medvedev will be either two-time Roland-Garros runner-up Casper Ruud, who the Canadian did defeat earlier this year on clay in Madrid although the Norwegian leads their head-to-head 3-2, or the recent Umag champion Francisco Cerundolo (Auger-Aliassime leads the head-to-head 2-1).
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Canada’s medal hopes in Paris now lie primarily on the shoulders of Auger-Aliassime. He is the only singles player left from the Great White North.
He is guaranteed to play for at least one medal as Auger-Aliassime and Gabriela Dabrowski defeated their neighbours Taylor Fritz and Coco Gauff of the United States in the mixed doubles quarter-finals 10-8 in the match tiebreak on Friday.
By reaching the semifinals, the Canadian pair are guaranteed to play for a medal no matter the result of their semifinal on Thursday against the Czech team of Tomas Mahac and Katerina Siniakova. A win would guarantee them no worse than silver and a shot at gold on Friday.
Dabrowski and Leylah Annie Fernandez were upset in the second round of the women’s doubles on Wednesday morning by Mirra Andreeva, Medvedev’s mixed doubles partner, and Diana Shnaider.
