The performance of Alexander Zverev at grand slam tournaments was an issue of concern for him and his team till last year. The German was able to turn things over at majors as he reached the finals at the 2020 US Open, where he lost to Dominic Thiem.
Since that final, the world number six has made it at least to the quarter-finals in both the Australian and French Open respectively. His hopes of making a third consecutive grand slam quarter-finals were challenged by the talented Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Felix, who was given a walkover in the third-round by Nick Kyrgios, entered the pre-quarters as the better rested player. On the other hand, Alexander Zverev was not challenged by any of his opponents in the initial rounds, except for Taylor Fritz.
The American player took a set off Zverev in the third-round but the latter overpowered Fritz to face Felix Auger-Aliassime in the fourth round at SW19.
Let’s see how the match progressed.
Felix Auger-Aliassime took the first two sets against Alexander Zverev
For large part of the first two sets, Felix was the better player as he got the better of Zverev through his accurate serving and flashy forehand winners. Even though the German made sure the scoring gap was as little as possible, double faults creeped out of his racquet at crucial moments.
Felix Auger-Aliassime won the first set, 6-4. The match became intriguing in the second set as both players produced high-quality grass court tennis by not sticking to longer baseline rallies.
On one hand, the young Canadian was so accurate with his serve and forehand combination whereas Zverev notched up the quality of his game and went toe-to-toe with Felix in the second set.
Deservedly, the set went to a tie-breaker and Zverev displayed his vulnerability yet again when it comes to playing big points. Between the two, Felix was able to withstand the pressure as he ran away with the set, 7-6(8).
FAA a set away from his first major QF #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/Hn9pnaqFlC
— Tennis GIFs
(@tennis_gifs) July 5, 2021
Zverev got the better off the Canadian in the next two sets to push the match to a deciding fifth set
However, things turned the German’s way in the third and fourth sets. As Felix faced a dip in level, Zverev managed to extract as many errors as he can from the Canadian and got himself a break point.
Even though Zverev was still making a lot of double faults, he backed them up with strong first serves. Both third and fourth sets witnessed an increase in his first serve percentage as he appeared to clinch yet another come back victory after being two sets down.
With the German winning both the third and fourth sets, the pressure was right back on Felix Auger-Aliassime. The Canadian rose up to the moment and won two back-to-back games in the deciding fifth set.
Also, the fact that Zverev made three double-faults in his initial service game in the fifth helped Felix to break the German’s serve. Soon after the double-fault fiasco, it began to rain on Court-1 and the play stopped for around twenty minutes.
When the play resumed, Zverev found a new leash of motivation as he broke the Canadian immediately on return and looked poised to make a turn around in the match. But, the double-faults became his enemy once again as he lost the serve at 3-3 in the fifth.
Felix looked confident enough to consolidate the break point as he inched closer to his first-ever grand slam quarter-final. Serving at 5-4 in the fifth, the young Canadian’s serve was accurate enough to break Alexander Zverev as he won a high-quality contest against the German.
The post Kudos FAA! Felix Auger-Aliassime Enters Maiden Slam Quarter-Finals After Upsetting Alexander Zverev at Wimbledon Championships 2021 appeared first on EssentiallySports.
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