Auger-Aliassime rides powerful serve to 2nd round of Halle Open in Germany
Posts 11 aces vs. American Giron; Serena Williams to make comeback at Wimbledon
Montreal's Felix Auger-Aliassime moved on to the second round of the Halle Open tennis tournament with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 win over American Marcos Giron on Tuesday in Germany.
Auger-Aliassime, seeded fourth at the ATP 500 grass-court event, broke Giron five times on nine chances, including the clinching game of the first set and a crucial break in the third set that game him a 4-2 lead.
Giron had three breaks on eight chances, with all of them coming in the second set.
Auger-Aliassime's powerful serve was on display in the match. He fired 11 aces to Giron's one.
The Canadian improved his career record against Giron to 3-0.
Auger-Aliassime will face American Mackenzie McDonald in the second round. It will be the first meeting between the players.
WATCH l Auger-Aliassime rebounds from stunning loss at Libema Open:
On Saturday, Auger-Aliassime was knocked out of the Libema Open grass-court tennis tournament after being upset 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (5) in the semifinals by Tim Van Rijthoven of the Netherlands.
Van Rijthoven, ranked 196 places lower than world No. 9 Auger-Aliassime in the ATP rankings, denied the Canadian a chance to play for his second Tour win with a 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (5) victory.
Van Rijthoven and Auger-Aliassime held serve throughout the third set, resulting in a tiebreak. Van Rijthoven won three straight points to take a 6-3 lead and set up match point. Auger-Aliassime won the next two points on serve to cut into the lead before his Dutch opponent put the match away.
Van Rijthoven broke the Montreal native just once in seven chances, but that proved to be enough as he was able to hold serve in the first and third sets.
Fellow Canadian Denis Shapovalov had his match against Tommy Paul suspended after two sets at the Queen's Club ATP tournament on Tuesday.
The Richmond Hill, Ont., native lost the first set 4-6 before winning the second one 6-2 prior to the suspension.
Tsitsipas moves on
Elsewhere, second-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated Benjamin Bonzi 7-6 (1), 1-6, 6-3 in the first round.
Tsitsipas, who reached the quarter-finals in Stuttgart last week, had to fight hard to beat the 52nd-ranked Bonzi in one hour 55 minutes to take his tour-leading tally to 36 wins in 2022.
Tsitsipas is bidding for his second title of the year and his first on grass. The Greek player next faces Kyrgios, the Australian wild card who defeated Daniel Altmaier 6-3, 7-5.
In other matches, eighth-seeded Karen Khachanov won 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-2 against fellow Russian Aslan Karatsev, and Dutch qualifier Tallon Griekspoor battled to a 7-6 (10), 6-3 win over Alex Molcan. Roberto Bautista Agut, seeded seventh, was leading 6-2, 3-0 against Marton Fucsovics when the Hungarian retired from the match.
On the women's side, Serena Williams is going to play at Wimbledon this year, after all. The All England Club announced via Twitter on Tuesday that Williams was awarded a wild-card entry for singles.
Williams has not competed anywhere since getting injured during the first set of her first-round match at the All England Club a year ago. And her name did not appear on the women's singles entry list released by the grass-court Grand Slam tournament earlier this month.
But Williams was among six women given a spot in the singles draw on Tuesday. In an Instagram post earlier in the day, Williams posted a photo of her white shoes on what appears to be a grass court and the message: "SW and SW19. It's a date. 2022. See you there. Let's Go."
7-time champion
"SW" are her initials, of course, and "SW19" is the postal code for Wimbledon.
The 40-year-old American has won seven of her Open era-record 23 major singles championships at Wimbledon, most recently in 2016.
Williams was the runner-up there in 2018 and 2019 (the tournament was cancelled in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic).
In 2021, Williams lost her footing on the slick grass and then her right leg buckled, leading to just the second mid-match retirement at any Grand Slam tournament of her career and first since 1998.
With files from The Associated Press
