Canadians fizzle out in Rome

TENNIS

Félix Auger-Aliassime pushed Novak Djokovic, but he couldn’t topple him. The top-ranked Djokovic won the last five points of a second-set tiebreaker to beat the Canadian 7-5, 7-6 (1) in the Italian Open quarterfinals. “It was high-level tennis,” said Djokovic, who is still looking for his first title of the year. “He did ask me to raise the level and I had to play consistently well.” Two other Canadians didn’t fare any better Friday. Casper Ruud beat Richmond Hill’s Denis Shapovalov 7-6 (7), 7-5 and will face Djokovic in the men’s semifinals, while Iga Swiatek beat Bianca Andreescu 7-6 (2), 6-0 to reach the women’s final four.