Montreal's Felix Auger-Aliassime moved on to the third round of the Western & Southern Open Masters-level tennis tournament with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Australia's Alex de Minaur on Wednesday.
Auger-Aliassime, the seventh seed in Cincinnati, overcame 17 unforced errors and won 71 per cent of service points and 48 per cent of return points in a match that took one hour 18 minutes to complete.
It was the first meeting on the ATP Tour between Auger-Aliassime and world No. 20 de Minaur. They split a pair of matches at the Challenger level, with Auger-Aliassime winning in the quarter-final of a 2017 tournament in Drummondville, Que., and de Minaur coming out on top the next year in the quarter-finals at Braga, Portugal.
Auger-Aliassime had nine aces in Wednesday's match to three for de Minaur, and converted four of his six break points while saving break point three of four times. WATCH | Auger-Aliassime cruises past de Minaur: Auger-Aliassime, ranked ninth in the world, rebounded after a 6-1, 6-2 loss to Casper Ruud last week in the quarter-finals of the National Bank Open in Montreal. "I never thought it would be ending like this today," he said after that match.