Felix makes winning debut in Lyon

Felix Auger-Aliassime earned his first victory at the Open Parc Auvergne-RhoneAlpes Lyon, beating John Millman 7-6(3), 7-5.

The #NextGenATP Canadian, competing at a career high No. 28 in the ATP Rankings this week, saved all five break points he faced to advance after one hour and 48 minutes. Auger-Aliassime is through to the last eight of an ATP Tour clay-court event for the third time this season, having reached the Rio Open presented by Claro final (l. to Djere) and Brasil Open quarter-finals (l. to Djere) earlier this year.

"It feels good [to playing in Lyon]. I've been around the last two years, and seeing people that I've seen before and good memories, it's always good, especially as a young guy on Tour, to be able to come into tournaments and already have good memories of the city. It feels good," said AugerAliassime. "I felt from the first steps that I did on the court, I felt like the public was going to be behind me so that was a great feeling."

In his 30th tour-level encounter of the year (18-11), the 18-year-old will meet Steve Johnson for a spot in the semifinals. Johnson advanced to his second ATP Tour quarter-final of the season after beating seventh seed Pierre-Hugues Herbert 76(6), 5-7, 6-1. The 29-year-old American broke serve on four occasions to level his FedEx ATP Head2Head series against Herbert at 1-1. "Tennis is a weird sport. It's a game of inches, it really is," said Johnson. "In the second set, I had break point and then he hit a let-cord forehand, and then the ball didn't bounce... At the start of the third set, I was able to capitalise on the first break point and then probably shouldn't have broken in the second game, and was lucky enough to do so and then was able to close it out."

Benoit Paire needed two hours to overcome Mackenzie McDonald 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-1. The World No. 51 landed 16 aces and won 78 per cent of first-serve points (47/60) to earn his first victory at the event.