Auger-Aliassime survives VAR moment to advance in Dubai

Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime reached the second round of the Dubai Open by beating Kazakh Alexander Bublik 7-6 (7), 6-7 (4), 6-3 at the Aviation Club Tennis Centre on Tuesday afternoon.

Auger-Aliassime, ranked No 21, will face Portuguese Nuno Borges next.

The match included a contentious moment – at 6-6 in the first-set tiebreak – when Auger-Aliassime claimed he had been hindered by the movement of a ballboy moving forward as he attempted to retrieve a smash.

Video replay is in use this week in Dubai and after checking the replay, the umpire agreed, ordering the point to be replayed. Bublik duly hit an ace on an underarm serve but after Auger-Aliassime won his two points on serve, a Bublik double fault handed the Canadian the first set.

Bublik levelled the match by winning the second set on another tiebreak but one break, in the fifth game of the decider, was enough to see Auger-Aliassime through.

Dubai ATP 500, other first-round results (Aviation Club Tennis Centre, hard, USD 3.237.670, most recent results first):

• Christopher O’Connell vs. Grigor Dimitrov
• Gael Monfils vs. Matteo Berrettini
• Daniil Medvedev vs. Jan-Lennard Struff
• Jiri Lehecka vs. Ugo Humbert
• Quentin Halys vs. Andrey Rublev: tuesday
• Roman Safiullin vs. Tallon Griekspoor: tuesday
• Marin Cilic beat Alex De Minaur (2): 6-2, 3-6, 6-3
• Nuno Borges beat Arthur Fils (8): 6-2, 6-1
• Luca Nardi (LL) beat Marton Fucsovics (Q): 1-6, 6-2, 6-3
• Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard beat Zhizhen Zhang: 6-3, 7-6 (3)
• Stefanos Tsitsipas (4) beat Lorenzo Sonego: 7-6 (4), 6-3
• Zizou Bergs beat Aziz Dougaz (WC): 6-3, 6-3
• Karen Khachanov beat Daniel Evans (WC): 6-1, 6-3
• Alexei Popyrin beat Hady Habib (WC): 6-2, 6-4
• Roberto Bautista Agut beat Fabian Marozsan: 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4)