Auger-Aliassime beats Zverev for biggest win, gets Berrettini in Wimbledon quarter-finals
Felix Auger-Aliassime gets his first five-set win on Monday, beating Alexander Zverev to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals. Next up for the Canadian is good friend Matteo Berrettini.
Félix Auger-Aliassime, Wimbledon 2021 © AI / Reuters / Panoramic
Felix Auger-Aliassime took a big step in his career with a 6-4, 7-6(6), 3-6, 3-6 6-4 victory over Alexander Zverev in the Wimbledon fourth round on Monday evening.
Not only had Auger-Aliassime never won a five-set match prior to this result, but he had also never reached a Grand Slam quarter-final. In fact, he had never defeated Zverev either (0-3 lifetime, 0-6 in total sets). But none of that mattered on Monday, as the 20-year-old stayed mentally strong and survived the four-hour and two-minute thriller. His reward is a Wednesday showdown against good friend Matteo Berrettini.
“It’s a dream come true,” Auger-Aliassime told the crowd during his post-match interview. “It’s unbelievable; it’s what you dream of. I’m just a normal guy from Montreal, Canada and here I am: Court 1, Wimbledon. It was surely the best win of my life.”
Berrettini blasts his way into Wimbledon quarter-finals
Outside of Novak Djokovic, Berrettini is one of the favorites at the All-England Club and he proved it again on Monday with a 6-4, 6-3, 6-1 beatdown of Ilya Ivashka. The Italian needed only one hour and 47 minutes to reached the quarter-finals at this event for the first time in his career.
Berrettini also advanced to the fourth round in 2019, but he was no match for eight-time champion Roger Federer at that point. Unsurprisingly, it was a much different story against the unseeded Ivashka. Berrettini dominated in all aspects right from the start and never relinquished his stranglehold on the match. His only hiccup came with a donation of serve late in the second set, but he already had a double-break advantage in his pocket at that stage. The world No 9 won 84 percent of his first-serve points, was broken only once, earned six breaks of his own, and won 27 of 34 net points.
“I feel I am playing for sure the best tennis of my career,” said Berrettini, who finished runner-up at the Madrid Masters — to Zverev — and captured the Queen’s Club title. “(In) 2019 I was playing [well], but everything was kind of new. I had to adjust a little bit.
‘Now I have more confidence for sure, more experience as well. I know I can achieve my best results like I’m doing quarters in Paris, quarters here. Obviously the tournament is not done yet. I’m really looking forward to achieving even more.”
He will try to do that at the expense of Auger-Aliassime in two days’ time.
“He’s a good friend of mine and one of the best players in the world at the moment,” the Canadian commented. “It’s going to be good.”
