(Madrid) Montreal’s Félix Auger-Aliassime suffered elimination in his first match of the Madrid Tennis Open on Saturday, losing in three sets of 2-6, 6-3, 6-7 (5) against Serbian Dusan Lajovic in a second-round duel.
In the decisive tiebreaker, Auger-Aliassime found himself in serious trouble when he conceded the first five points to his rival, including two on his own serve.
Facing a 2-6 loss in the break — and four match points — Auger-Aliassime managed to narrow Lajovic’s lead to 6-5.
The Serb, however, ended the duel, played under closed roof at the Arantxa-Sanchez stadium, when he hit a forehand that the Montrealer failed to return to the other side of the net.
Lajovic thus signed a third victory in as many games against Auger-Aliassime.
The ninth player in the world and seventh seed in the tournament, Auger-Aliassime is the third Canadian to be eliminated in the second round in the last two days, after Eugenie Bouchard and Bianca Andreescu on Friday.
Denis Shapovalov will look to turn the tide later on Saturday when he takes on China’s Zhizhen Zhang.
