Auger-aliassime salutes finest win of his career after beating Zverev in marathon
Felix Auger-aliassime saluted the finest victory of his career after beating Alexander Zverev at Wimbledon to win a five-setter for the first time.
The Canadian reached his first grand slam quarter-final with a 6-4, 7-6 (6), 3-6, 3-6, 6-4 triumph in four gruelling hours.
Auger-aliassime had only been the distance once before, losing from two sets ahead against Aslan Karatsev at last year’s US Open.
The 20-year-old also had a two-set lead against fourth seed Zverev, who has already played an incredible 25 five-set matches in his relatively short career, winning 16 of them.
Zverev looked a likely winner when he finally rediscovered his first serve and levelled the match at 2-2. But Auger-aliassime found another gear just as Zverev’s serve deserted him again in the decider.
“It’s a dream come true, unbelievable,” said Auger-aliassime. “I’m just a normal guy from Montreal and here I am. Court One, Wimbledon.
“It’s surely the best victory of my life so far. With the roof closed the sound was crazy, like nothing I’ve experienced before.
“It was super difficult, I’ve never beaten Alex before, or even won a set against him. When he started serving better and things got difficult I had to dig deep.”
Auger-aliassime will meet Queen’s Club champion Matteo Berrettini, who beat Ilya Ivashka 6-4, 6-3, 6-1.
Meanwhile, Roger Federer made short work of Lorenzo Sonego to ease into the quarter-finals at Wimbledon.
The eight-time champion survived a testing first set to eventually swat aside the 23rd seed 7-5 6-4 6-2.
The Swiss served for the first set at 5-4 only for Sonego to break back. Federer had another break point when the rain came, causing a delay while the roof was closed and, on the resumption, he did not even have to hit a shot to win the game as Italy’s Sonego double-faulted.
From then on it was plain sailing for the 20-time grand slam champion on Centre Court.
“I’m extremely happy,” he said. “It was tricky conditions inside and outside and Lorenzo is a tough player but I felt after the first set I was able to control things. I couldn’t be more excited to be in the quarter-finals.”
Canada day may have been last Thursday but the nation was celebrating two quarterfinalists after Denis Shapovalov beat Roberto Bautista Agut in three sets.
Top seed and defending champion novak djokovi chad little trouble in dispensing of Chile’s Christian Garin 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 and will play Marton Fucsovics, who finally defeated his nemesis Andrey Rublev.
The Russian fifth seed had beaten Fucsovics three times already this year but the Hungarian won 6-3, 4-6, 4-6, 6-0, 6-3 to reach his first-ever grand slam quarter-final.
There was a marathon on Court 18 with 25th seed Karen Khachanov beating Sebastian Korda 10-8 in the fifth set.
Second seed Daniil Medvedev was two sets to one up and 3-4, on serve, in the fourth when his match against Hubert Hurkacz was curtailed by rain. The winner will face Federer.