Felix Auger Aliassime being able to play a marathon match in the first round of the 2024 Australian Open season is an injection of confidence.
The Canadian tennis player fought as hard as he could to hold off the fierce Dominic Thiem before winning 6-3, 7-5, 6-7, 5-7, 6-3 in the first round of the Australian Open, Melbourne between two players looking for their first win in the 2024 season.
At one stage when he was two points away from winning in straight sets, the 27th seed had to fight extra hard to finish the match which lasted 4 hours 59 minutes.
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“There was a lot of relief,” admitted Auger Aliassime, who was leading by 5/2 in the third set tiebreak before Thiem was able to turn things around dramatically.
“It’s crazy, in a game like that, you really feel all the emotions. It was a great level, a great game and I got off to a good start. Then, it’s a sport, it sucks sometimes. You try your best and he also plays well, and that’s a challenge for me.”
“At the end of the day, I don’t want to fail mentally. I don’t want to let myself down with my efforts or have any regrets when I leave the field today. It was very frustrating, how everything went in the third set. I thought, ‘You have to be tough, you have to stay strong,’ and I’m glad I did because now I feel really happy.”
The Austrian tennis player, Thiem, shot 57 winners, more than the 54 winners created by the Canadian player, but in the end, the 2020 US Open champion’s progress was stopped by the 66 unforced errors he made, more than the Canadian player who made 54 unforced errors. .
Thanks to this victory, the head to head between the two players was tied at 1-1 after Thiem won their meeting at the 2020 US Open season.
After beating Thiem in the longest match of his career to date, world number 30, Felix Auger Aliassime will prepare to play the second round match of the Australian Open against French tennis player, Hugo Granier who beat his compatriot, Alexandre Muller with 2-6, 7- 6, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6.
The 24th seed, Jan Lennard Struff, also had to play a marathon match before beating the host tennis player, Rinkky Hijikata, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-7, 7-6, to book a second round match against Miomir. Kecmanovic after the Serbian tennis player beat the Japanese tennis player, Yosuke Watanuki with 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-4.
The 21st seed, Ugo Humbert also followed in the footsteps of other top players after he was able to record a 6-2, 7-5, 5-7, 6-3 victory over Belgian tennis player, David Goffin and will be the opponent of Chinese national tennis player, Zhang Zhizhen tamed Argentine tennis player Federico Coria 6-4, 7-6, 7-6.
