The sixth time was the charm on Monday evening for Felix Auger-Aliassime.
The 20-year-old failed to serve out his match against Tennys Sandgren at 5-4 in the second set. But the seventh seed held his nerve in the ensuing tie-break, converting his sixth match point to complete a 6-3, 7-6(8) victory against the American in the first round of the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC.
Less than seven months ago, Sandgren outlasted Auger-Aliassime in a two-hour, 50-minute battle that ended in a third-set tie-break at the Western & Southern Open. Their second ATP Head2Head didn’t go as long, but there were still twists and turns.
The double-fault bug crept into Auger-Aliassime’s game late in the second set, when he hit two double faults while serving for the match. The Canadian let slip a 6/3 lead in the tie-break, but he never relented on Estadio in Mexico. Auger-Aliassime let out a roar of “Allez!” after crunching a service winner on his sixth match point of the tie-break.
Auger-Aliassime will next play former World No. 3 Marin Cilic or #NextGenATP American Sebastian Korda.