Canadians Auger-Aliassime, Shapovalov win 1st-round matches in Halle

Canadians Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov had winning starts Tuesday at the Terra Wortmann Open grass-court tennis tournament.

Montreal's Auger-Aliassime fired 17 aces in a 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-1 first-round win over Serbian qualifier Laslo Djere.

After losing a closely contested second set, Auger-Aliassime won 93 per cent of first serve points and converted two of his three chances to break in a dominant third set.

The win was Auger-Aliassime's first over Djere in three tries. The world No. 27, who was coming off a run to the semifinals last week in Stuttgart, will next face the winner of a match between eighth seed Karen Khachanov of Russia and Belgium's Zizou Bergs.

Shapovalov fought his way into the second round of the ATP 500 event in Halle, Germany, with a 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (4) upset of sixth seed Ugo Humbert of France.

The No. 31 from Richmond Hill, Ont., won on his first match point on a forced error when Humbert returned the Canadian's serve wide. Shapovalov improved his record against Humbert to 4-2.

Humbert had a chance to serve for the match with a double break point in Game 8 of the third set, but Shapovalov recovered to hold and tie it 4-4.

Shapovalov will next face No. 24 Flavio Cobolli of Italy.

Fresh off his first ATP Tour title, Montreal's Gabriel Diallo continued his winning ways with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 first-round victory over British wild-card Billy Harris on Tuesday at the HSBC Championships in London.

The 23-year-old Diallo, who won the ATP 250 Libema Open last week, out-aced Harris 11-10 and won 85 per cent of first serve points.

He scored two more breaks than Harris, converting four of seven chances while saving four of the six he faced.

Diallo, who had a career-high ranking of No. 44 entering the