On the heels of his win over Luca Nardi in the opening round of the Monte-Carlo Masters, Félix Auger-Aliassime fell to Lorenzo Sonego (6-4, 7-5) in a two-hour two-setter.
Félix was originally slated to go head-to-head against Carlos Alcaraz in a rematch of their recent showdown in Indian Wells, but plans changed when the Spaniard was forced to withdraw due to an arm injury. Just as the draw seemed to be opening up for the Canadian, lucky loser Sonego—a talented clay court specialist—was thrown in the mix.
In the tight first set, Auger-Aliassime easily won his first two service games at love but came up short on serve at 4-4. With the first three break points of the match, Sonego proved that the third time’s a charm. He secured the break and didn’t stop until he’d sealed the set.
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In the second, the Canadian quickly found his bearings to forge ahead 4-1, but Sonego dug deep and capitalized on FAA’s unforced errors to level the score at 5-5. Building on his momentum, he kept the pressure on Félix and got hold of a 6-5 lead on his third break of the match.
Never one to give up, Auger-Aliassime pulled out all the stops to fight off five match points and force Sonego to produce his best tennis, but it was the Italian who had the final word.
In the end, there wasn’t a lot separating the two opponents. Sonego won 51% of the points with only 4 unforced errors compared to Félix’s 13. Despite their similar stats on serve, Sonega was more effective on break points, locking in 3 of 7 versus only 1 of 3 for the Canadian.
The match marks Lorenzo Sonego’s second win in four matches against Félix Auger-Aliassime. In the next round, the Italian battles Ugo Humbert (14) of France.
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