While Félix Auger-Aliassime dispelled doubts about his fitness on Tuesday at Wimbledon, the Quebecer will have to wait before celebrating his first victory at the All England Club in three years. “FAA” was stopped in his tracks by a number 2 court that became too slippery and his first-round match against Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis will resume on Wednesday.
The 17the The top seed was leading 6-4, 7-5, 6-7 (9) and 1-1 when the organisers preferred to send the two rivals back to the locker room, as the sun setting over London no longer gave them time to complete the match.
But Felix himself had the opportunity to close the books earlier. He held three match points against the 93e world in the third set, in a tiebreaker in which he had previously overcome a 5-0 deficit.
Except that it was finally the Australian, as he has become accustomed to doing over the years in major tournaments, who prolonged the debate by pocketing the set at his first opportunity.
Kokkinakis had also broken the score at the start of the fourth set, before Auger-Aliassime returned the favor.
All legs
Until then, however, Félix had shown himself to be very solid, having been hampered by injuries in his two most recent matches, at Roland-Garros and then in Halle.
Photo AFP
All legged and offensive, “FAA” had also enjoyed signing timely breaks in the first two sets at the expense of the powerful server.
He will now have the night to think about the best strategy to conclude this match, and thereby secure his first win on grass in two years.
