Felix Auger Aliassime is through to the quarter-finals of the Bett1 Hulks Indoors in Cologne after beating the Swiss Henri Laaksonen in straight sets 6-4 and 6-1.
A tight first set :
A tightly contested first set between the two players and it stayed on serve until the latter stages of the set and we didn't see a breakpoint from either player until 5-4 when Laaksonen was serving to stay in the set. The Montreal native had two looks at a set point and managed to take the first set 6-4 after an unfortunate net cord and the ball would just bounce over the net.
Canadian Domination :
That first set seemed to give the momentum to the Canadian and he rode it into the second set looking to finish the match in two sets. The number three seed had an early breakpoint after holding the opening service game and it would take two break chances before he would break once more forcing the error from 139th ranked player in the world.
The 22nd ranked player in the world was able to hold serve and at 4-1 had a chance to break again and serve for the match. Once again his quick groundstrokes were too much to handle for 28 year old Swiss to handle and broke as he hit another unforced error.
He would serve for the match and took the match in straight sets 6-4 and 6-1 when Laaksonen would send the ball long. After the match, he spoke about the win and how he felt.
" I was playing good and serving good in the first set and I was facing a bit of difficulty, a bit of nerves and in the end, I played good and got lucky when it counted".
He also looked ahead to his next match vs Radu Albot in the quarter-finals.
" he's quick, he puts a lot of balls back, among the short guys on tour so he doesn't have a big serve but I'm sure he can place it well so it's going to be tricky and I am going to be ready for the challenge"
Other results from Day 4 :
Another day and another upset as this time it was the eight seed Marin Cilic getting knocked out of the tournament by the Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich-Fokina in three sets 3-6, 7-6, and 6-2 to set up his quarter-final match with Dennis Novak of Austria.
In the final match of the day Roberto Bautista Agut booked his spot in the quarter-finals as he was able to beat Frenchman Gilles Simon in straight sets 6-4 and 7-6.