Felix Overcomes Hiccup, Isner Cruises In Acapulco

The sixth time was the charm on Monday evening for Felix Auger-Aliassime.

The 20-year-old failed to serve out his match against Tennys Sandgren at 5-4 in the second set. But the seventh seed held his nerve in the ensuing tie-break, converting his sixth match point to complete a 6-3, 7-6(8) victory against the American in the first round of the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC.

"For sure it’s a relief. I was playing great overall this match. I got broken once, missed a few forehands in the first set, but overall it was a great match until I got myself serving for the match and the nerves kicked in," Auger-Aliassime said in an on-court interview. "It was kind of weird, I didn’t expect that to happen at all, I felt good. Sometimes you’ve just got to accept what’s happening and deal with the outcome."

Less than seven months ago, Sandgren outlasted Auger-Aliassime in a two-hour, 50-minute battle that ended in a third-set tie-break at the Western & Southern Open. Their second ATP Head2Head didn't go as long, but there were still twists and turns. 

The double-fault bug crept into Auger-Aliassime's game late in the second set, when he hit three double faults while serving for the match. The Canadian let slip a 6/3 lead in the tie-break, but he never relented on Estadio in Mexico. Auger-Aliassime let out a roar of "Allez!" after crunching a service winner on his sixth match point of the tie-break.

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Auger-Aliassime will next play former World No. 3 Marin Cilic or #NextGenATP American Sebastian Korda.

World No. 27 John Isner booked a second-round clash with top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas. The American prevailed 6-4, 6-3 over Italian Salvatore Caruso.

In only his second tour-level event since Roland Garros last year, Isner hammered 17 aces past the World No. 84 and claimed 32 of his 37 first-serve points. He secured a break in each set to complete the result in 72 minutes.