Milos Raonic of Canada plays a backhand return to Alex de Minaur of Australia during their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championships at Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 15, 2024. Raonic advanced to the quarterfinals of the ABN Amro Open tennis tournament with a 6-4, 6-4 upset of eighth seed Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan on Wednesday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Asanka Brendon Ratnayake
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands – Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime dropped his second-round match at the ABN Amro Open tennis tournament against Russia’s Andrey Rublev 6-3, 6-7 (6), 5-7 on Wednesday.
The Montreal native had 20 aces and 42 winners in the two-hour 33-minute match.
However, he had 22 unforced errors to just 12 from Rublev, along with five double faults to his opponents’ two.
The 23-year-old Auger-Aliassime won the tournament back in 2022, one of the four he was victorious in that year.
Earlier Wednesday, Canadian veteran Milos Raonic advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-4 upset of eighth seed Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan.
The 33-year-old Raonic, a former world No. 3 from Thornhill, Ont., scored a key break to go up 3-2 in the second set and kept Bublik at bay the rest of the way with his powerful serve.
Five of Raonic’s 12 aces came after that break, including three straight to go up 5-3 and another to set up match point in the final game.
Raonic’s quarterfinal opponent is yet to be determined, but Gael Monfils could be a possibility.
The French veteran moved on to the second round with a tough 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) win over Canadian qualifier Denis Shapovalov.
Shapovalov, from Richmond Hill, Ont., missed on a break point chance in Game 7 of the second set.
With the second tiebreaker tied 5-5, Monfils won the next point on return before converting match point on serve.
Monfils will face the winner of a match between top seed Jannik Sinner of Italy and Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands in the second round. The winner of that match will face Raonic in the quarterfinals.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 14, 2024.
