DOHA, Qatar — Felix Auger-Aliassime from Montreal narrowly missed a thrilling comeback, succumbing to Andrey Rublev in the Qatar Open semifinals with a final score of 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (5) on Friday.
In a nail-biting third-set tiebreaker, Auger-Aliassime found himself trailing 6-3 but rallied to score two consecutive points on his serve. However, when it was Rublev’s turn to serve, the fifth-seeded Russian seized his opportunity and clinched victory on his third match point.
Despite an impressive display that included 21 aces, Auger-Aliassime couldn’t capitalize on what proved to be a pivotal break-point opportunity in the very first game of the deciding set, as both competitors held serve fiercely from that point on.
Rublev secured the opening set by breaking Auger-Aliassime in a crucial moment, but the Canadian retaliated strongly in the second set, delivering a stunning performance with seven aces and winning an impressive 81% of his service points.
With this victory, Rublev enhanced his record against Auger-Aliassime to 6-1 and will now face the winner of the quarterfinal matchup between eighth-seeded Brit Jack Draper and Czech Jiri Lehecka, who surprisingly upset top seed Carlos Alcaraz to reach the semifinals.
Auger-Aliassime made his way to the semifinals after Daniil Medvedev, the fourth seed, was forced to retire from their quarterfinal match due to food poisoning after dropping the first set 6-3.
The 24-year-old Canadian has kicked off the season with a commendable 14-4 record, following his recent title victories in Adelaide, Australia, and Montpellier, France.
