Félix Auger-Aliassime’s journey at the Australian Open ended in the second round on Wednesday.
The Quebecer, 29 seed, lost to Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in five sets of 7-6 (7), 7-6 (5), 4-6, 1-6 and 3-6 at the end of a 4:51 a.m. match which had to be moved to another court due to the cacophony emanating from the adjacent court.
After 42 minutes of play in the first round on court no. 8, Auger-Aliassime and his opponent asked the referee to continue the match on another court, because the supporters of Frenchman Arthur Cazaux were so noisy and disruptive in the stands on court no. 6, while their favorite faced Briton Scot Jacob Fearnley.
The referee accepted and suspended the match, before it finally resumed on court no. 7. Both players immediately resumed the action without warming up again, Davidovich serving at 3-4.
Auger-Aliassime then won the first two sets in the tiebreaker, before collapsing in the next two.
In the next round, Davidovich Fokina will face the Czech Jakub Mensik, who surprised the 6th seed, the Norwegian Casper Ruud.
Ontario’s Denis Shapovalov and Montreal’s Gabriel Diallo will play their second round match in the evening. Shapovalov will face the Italian Lorenzo Musetti (no. 16), while Diallo will meet the Russian Karen Khachanov (no. 19).
More details to come.
Canada
