Canadian Auger-Aliassime advances to Cologne Championship quarter-finals
Thornhill, Ont., native Milos Raonic through to 2nd round of European Open
Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime rallied for a 4-6, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4) victory over qualifier Egor Gerasimov of Belarus in the second round of the Cologne Championship on Wednesday.
The fifth-seeded Auger-Aliassime, who received a first-round bye, broke Gerasimov when the world No. 87 was serving for the match up 6-5 in the second set at the ATP Tour 250 hard-court event.
Auger-Aliassime, ranked 22nd in the world, is coming off a run to the final last week at the Cologne Indoors.
The Montreal native struggled on second serve Wednesday, winning only 51 per cent of those points, but he saved six-of-10 break points.
WATCH | Auger-Aliassime rallies past Gerasimov:
In the quarterfinals, Auger-Aliassime will face the winner of a match between Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany and Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan.
No. 3 seed Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., will play a second-round match on Thursday against Gilles Simon of France.
Zverev hit 10 double-faults but held his nerve to win his fifth straight match in Cologne after winning last week's Cologne Indoors.
The two back-to-back competitions were added to the provisional schedule following the suspension of the season due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Zverev next faces eighth-seeded Adrian Mannarino, who beat Serbia's Miomir Kecmanovic 6-3, 6-3.
Also, Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina beat Steve Johnson of the United States 7-6 (3), 6-3 in the second round.
Roanic into European Open 2nd round
Canada's Milos Raonic has advanced to the second round of the European Open.
The No. 6 seed, from Thornhill, Ont., beat world No. 52 Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia 6-3, 7-6 (4) at the ATP Tour 250 hard-court event on Wednesday.
WATCH | Raonic eliminates Bedene in 1st round:
Raonic, ranked 19th in the world, won 91 per cent of his points (40-of-44) when he got his first serve in and finished with 17 aces.
The Canadian improved his lifetime record against Bedene to 3-0.
Raonic will next face world No. 70 Cameron Norrie of Great Britain. Raonic won their only previous meeting last year on a hard court in Paris.
With files from The Associated Press
