MONTREAL-
Felix Auger-Aliassime was standing at the back of the IGA Stadium hard court with one hand on his hip and a shocked look on his face.
Casper Ruud managed to get his racket into an overhand shot late in Friday’s quarterfinal against the Canadian, the return floating over Auger-Aliassime’s head and into the baseline.
Auger-Aliassime backed away but his shot found the net. Nothing worked for him that day, not even the tennis equivalent of a dunk, in a 6-1, 6-2 rout that lasted just 74 minutes.
“(My) first two games were good, some positive things,” Auger-Aliassime said. “I never thought it would end like this today.”
The sixth-seeded Auger-Aliassime entered the game without dropping a set this week but came out flat on a cloudy afternoon. Ruud, the No. 4 seed from Norway, wrapped up the first set in 36 minutes and took out the cheering crowd from the match.
Montreal’s Auger-Aliassime made 21 unforced errors to just eight by Ruud, who advanced to his third Masters 1000 semifinal of the season.
“It was a perfect day for me at the office,” Ruud said.
Ruud, who will next play No. 8 Hubert Hurkacz of Poland, who beat Nick Kyrgios 7-6 (4), 6-7 (5), 6-1.
Auger-Aliassime had hoped to become the first Canadian to reach the semi-finals at this ATP Tour event since Denis Shapovalov in 2017. The last Canadian to win this tournament was Robert Bedard in 1958.
“It’s very disappointing to lose a tournament like this and especially here,” said Auger-Aliassime.
The unseeded players were scheduled to play in the quarterfinals that night. The American Tommy Paul would face the British Daniel Evans and the Spanish Pablo Carreño Busta would face the British qualifier Jack Draper.
Auger-Aliassime was unable to get going despite constant prodding from the nearly full crowd. He was taking more shots than usual and his mistakes came at critical moments.
With a powerful forehand and an effective two-handed backhand, Ruud was clinical in his attack and relentless with the pressure. Auger-Aliassime was forced to hit his heels and had to settle for a defensive style.
The Canadian allowed two quick breaks in the second set before finally holding serve to make it 1-4.
“Immediately losing my service game, then another … three-zero really felt like the worst possible result today,” Auger-Aliassime said. “At that point it gets very difficult.
“I did my best, but he was also getting more and more comfortable and confident, so things got a lot more difficult.”
Earlier in the day, Hurkacz capitalized on two double faults from Kyrgios early in the third set for the first break of his match. He rolled from there to end the Aussie’s nine-fight win streak.
“Nick is a super opponent, he can make every shot,” Hurkacz said. “He really doesn’t have that many weaknesses, if he has any. He was just trying to serve (well) and stay aggressive.”
There was no wasted energy from Kyrgios, who played as if he had a taxi waiting outside the venue.
He would usually bounce the ball just once and go straight to his service move. The pace of play agreed with Hurkacz, a 6-foot-5 right-hander who matched the Australian’s power play.
Both players had break chances, but tiebreaks were needed to settle the first two sets.
Kyrgios, who dispatched defending champion and World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev in the second round, slowed down in the third set and his serve lost some steam.
“I am not a machine, I am a human,” Kyrgios said. “My knees hurt, my back hurt, my abdominal (area) hurt. I was trying to keep moving, but I got stiff.”
Kyrgios entered the game with wins in 15 of his last 16 matches, with the only loss coming against Novak Djokovic in last month’s Wimbledon final.
The semifinals are scheduled for Saturday and the final of the $6.57 million tournament will be on Sunday. The winner will win a little over $915,000.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on August 12, 2022.