TORONTO – Quebec’s Felix Auger-Aliassime saw his Toronto stay end quickly, as Serbian Dusan Lajovic defeated him 7-5, 6-4 on Wednesday in a second round match at the National Bank Open.
Auger-Aliassime, seeded ninth, had a second-round pass and thus was in his first match of the tournament in the singles.
He had lost in doubles with Alexis Gallarno on Monday.
Auger-Aliassime made mistakes against Lagovich, especially with a forehand.
He found himself in the telegrams in the fifth inning of the encounter, but saved three break points.
Auger-Aliassime saved another break point in the ninth game, but eventually received a break for Lajovic in the eleventh game of the first game, when he made a double-fault. Then Lagovich quickly closed the books to the service.
In all, Auger-Aliassime made 19 unforced errors in the first set, for only seven winning strokes.
Auger-Aliassime finally got a first break point in the second half of the second set, but his Serbian rival closed the door.
Lajovic then took control of the second set, breaking Auger-Aliassime again in the third game.
Ranked 44th in the world, Lajovic made sure that this break made the difference and managed to score a second win in many professional duels against Quebec.
He will face Norway’s sixth seed, Casper Ruud, in the third round.
Therefore, Auger-Aliassime has only one win over his singles record since his elimination in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon. He lost his first match at the Tokyo Olympics and his second match last week in Washington.
Another Canadian singer, Denis Shapovalov, was scheduled to make his debut of the evening at the Aviva Center. Fifth seed Shapovalov had a meeting with American Frances Tiafoe in a second round match.
Another seed surrendered early Wednesday. And the Italian 16th seed Yannick Sener fell victim to the Australian James Duckworth, who won 6-3 6-4.
South Africa’s Lloyd Harris also reached the third round, defeating Spain’s Feliciano Lopez 6-2, 6-3.
