Smooth-serving Auger-Aliassime downs Frenchman Halys in 1st round at Marseille
Canadian fires 8 aces in straight-sets win, will face China's Zhang Zhizhen in Round 2
Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime advanced to the second round of the Open 13 Provence tennis tournament with a 6-2, 7-5 win over French wild-card Quentin Halys on Wednesday in Marseille, France.
Montreal's Auger-Aliassime, seeded seventh in Marseille, excelled on serve. He won 80 per cent of his service points, including an impressive 93 per cent (27 of 29) on first serve.
"I think I started the perfect way, hitting my targets and being aggressive, keeping him on defence and without much time," Auger-Aliassime said. "So it was the perfect start and then he was serving too good in the second set until I got lucky with a double fault.
"I was trying to put pressure on him whenever I had a second serve [to return]. I think I played a very complete match."
Halys fired 10 aces in the match, compared to eight for Auger-Aliassime. But while the Frenchman showed he could match the Canadian's power, he was a distant second in accuracy converting just 56 per cent of service points.
WATCH | Auger-Aliassime picks up 8th win in 11 matches in Marseille:
Auger-Aliassime saved the only break point he faced while converting three of five break points against Halys.
The world No. 28, a two-time finalist in Marseille, improved his career record at the tournament to 8-3.
"I love playing well here. I have great memories," Auger-Aliassime said. "Twice a finalist, so obviously I've won some matches here but didn't go all the way to the end. Let's see if I can be part of another final here, but the week is so young and there is still a lot of tennis to play."
Auger-Aliassime, who is coming off a run to the semifinals last week in Montpellier, France, will face world No. 50 Zhang Zhizhen of China in the second round.
WATCH | Auger-Aliassime reaches semifinals at recent tourney in :
