Red-hot Auger-Aliassime into semifinals at Swiss Indoors

BASEL, Switzerland — Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime beat Alexander Bublik 6-2, 6-3 on Friday to reach the semifinals of the Swiss Indoors tennis tournament.

The 22-year-old Montreal native, seeded third in the tournament, broke the Kazakh's serve in the first game of the match and easily won the opening set.

Bublik, ranked 38th in the world, offered better opposition in the second set, but eventually went down in defeat in a match that lasted just an hour and 11 minutes.

"It was a good match. It is so important for me to stay disciplined and focus on my serve," said Auger-Aliassime. "I haven't been broken in the whole tournament and today was a good effort on staying focused on my serve. I was able to seize a few opportunities. The first break was important. To take that pressure off myself from the beginning. It is the best way to start the match."

Auger-Aliassime has now won 11 straight matches. He entered the Swiss event following back-to-back wins at tournaments in Florence and Antwerp.

"In the past two months, I have been training much better and very locked in and focused on what I need to do and I am trying to put it on display," he said.

The Canadian fired 10 aces and didn't allow Bublik a single break point. Auger-Aliassime hammered 28 winners against only four unforced errors.

Auger-Aliassime will next play world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz in Saturday's semifinal. Alcaraz downed fellow Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta 6-3, 6-4 on Friday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 28, 2022.