Felix Auger-Aliassime advances to fourth round at Cincinnati Open

Article content

CINCINNATI — Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime advanced to the fourth round of the Cincinnati Open tennis tournament with a 7-6 (4), 4-2 win over France’s Arthur Rinderknech on Monday.

Rinderknech collapsed under the heat earlier in the match, got backup, but retired in the second set with Auger-Aliassime in the lead.

Auger-Aliassime fired seven aces and won a blistering 87 per cent of his first-serve points.

The Montreal native also broke on two of his 11 opportunities while holding Rinderknech to one breakpoint chance that was unsuccessful in the two-hour, one-minute match.

Auger-Aliassime will next face Benjamin Bonzi of France, who beat Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-4 on Monday.

In Monday’s evening draw, top-ranked Jannik Sinner of Italy outlasted Montreal’s Gabriel Diallo 6-2, 7-6 (6) after a lengthy delay due to a power outage at the stadium.

The power outage posed a problem during the one-hour, 52-minute match as the video review board conked out at times, and a stadium fire alarm blared during the second set.

The biggest problem, however, was Diallo’s rare rash of double faults — he had 10 of them sprinkled around his 10 aces. Diallo also committed 51 unforced errors, while Sinner had 20.

While Sinner rarely showed the style of play that has earn him the world’s No. 1 ranking, he made fewer mistakes and won critical points at key times against the resilient Canadian.

Sinner won three of 12 break points, while Diallo won one of three. Sinner won 73 per cent of his service points and 46 per cent of return points. Diallo won 54 per cent of his service points and 27 per cent on return.

Sinner advances to the round of 16 and will play Adrian Mannarino of France, who upset 13th-seeded American Tommy Paul 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 on Monday night.