Quebec’s Félix Auger-Aliassime only made it into the singles main draw at the tennis tournament in Astana, Kazakhstan after losing in straight sets 6-4, 7-6 (6) to Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut on Monday in the first round .
The 21st racquet in the world took a little under two hours to topple the holder of the 13th level in the world. The winner halted a personal streak of three career misses against the FAA, whom he defeated twice five times.
Seeded eighth, Auger-Aliassime struggled on serve and won 44% of the contested points with second balls in hand. He maintained a 61% save rate on his first serves. The Maple Leaf player broke once but conceded the break twice.
Bautista Agut won 73 points, eight more than his rival.
Carlos Alcaraz, who is at the forefront of the professional circuit, also takes part in this competition.
Canadian tennis fans will be able to see some representatives of the Maple Leaf in action later this week. Eugenie Bouchard (506th) is likely to meet Belinda Bencic (14th) in the round of 16 of the tournament in Ostrava, Czech Republic.
On the same day in Tokyo Denis Shapovalov (22nd) has an appointment with the American Steve Johnson (112th).
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