Canadian Press
Felix Auger-Aliassime loses in five sets to Aslan Karatsev at the Australian Open
MELBOURNE, Australia – Montrealer Felix Auger-Aliassime fell in broken fashion at the fourth round of this year’s Australian Open. The 20-year-old boy lost to Russian player Aslan Karatsev 6-3, 6-1, 3-6, 3-6, 4-6 at Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne. Auger-Aliassime held two sets without any direction over Karatsev before losing all three of his sets. A win for Canada would send him to the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in his career. “It’s a shame,” Auger-Aliassime said. “It’s a shame I couldn’t get through today. It’s hard to swallow but it’s tennis. That’s the way it is. That’s life.” Karatsev defeated Diego Schwartzman of Argentina to reach the fourth round of the tournament. After defeating Canada, Karatsev will face Grigor Dimitrov of Belarus in the quarter-finals. Austria’s Dimitrov Dominic Thiem closed in straight sets 6-4, 6-4, 6-0, in their fourth-round match. “He played well,” Auger-Aliassime said. “Of course, I wish I could have done better service. However, I can’t just grab my fingers and it just happens. I had to be a better player overall to get over it. these situations. ” The Auger-Aliassime in the 20th seed found itself traveling through the first two sets. It took him 39 minutes to win the first set over the Russian player. Partly through, Auger-Aliassime struggled against a game point chance while down 0-40. The youngster won the next five points to lead himself 5-2 in the set. Down 1-0 in the second set, Auger-Aliassime hit three assists to win his first game. He would then win the next five games in a row to take the set in 29 minutes. Karatsev would start to come back in the third set. The two players traded the first two points of the set before Karatsev won the next two points to put Auger-Aliassime down 4-2. Canada had 10 non-critical errors in the third set, his first set of the tournament. Auger-Aliassime dropped the first game of the fourth set before winning his first game for his tie at 1-1. Karatsev would then win the next three games and shoot five places before winning the final fourth set. The last set was an unrecorded field for both players as none of them had ever played in a fifth set. After releasing the opening game of the fifth set, Karatsev beat Canada to go up 2-1. Karatsev went up 4-2 later in the set before the two players fought at deuce six times for 12 minutes. Auger-Aliassime eventually won the win and scored his third point of the set. Both would win one more game before Karatsev had three game points to beat Canada. The Russian only needed one to beat the 20-year-old. “The positive thing is, in my mind, I stayed positive,” Auger-Aliassime said. “I finally believed. Even when I was down in the fifth set I still tried, I still believed.” The fifth game decision lasted 58 minutes before Karatsev postponed the winning back. Canada Milos Raonic is being asked to play his fourth-round match against Novak Djokovic of Serbia later Sunday, if the latter is healthy. Djokovic says he injured stomach muscles during the impact in his third round on American Taylor Fritz. Raonic has a lifetime of 0-11 against Djokovic. This report by The Canadian Press was first published on February 13, 2021. The Canadian Press