Felix Flies Into Stuttgart Final; Faces Cilic

Felix Auger-Aliassime’s love affair with the MercedesCup continued as he overcame Sam Querrey 6-4, 7-5 to reach an eighth ATP Tour final and second consecutive title match in Stuttgart.

The third-seeded Canadian, who lost to Matteo Berrettini in the 2019 final, did not face a break point as he hit seven aces to advance in 80 minutes against the American. The #NextGenATP star has not lost a set this week on the grass in Stuttgart and is now 17-11 on the season.

In an opening set that went with serve, Auger-Aliassime converted his first break point to find the decisive break at 5-4 and clinch the set. The second set followed a similar pattern, with the 20-year-old winning 89% (16/18) of his first-service points before taking his one opportunity on Querrey’s serve at 6-5 to close out the match.

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Auger-Aliassime will go in search of his first ATP title against Marin Cilic on Sunday. The Croatian, who is currently No. 47 in the FedEx ATP Rankings, won the opening set against Jurij Rodionov 6-3 before the Austrian wild card was forced to retire due to injury at 0-1 in the second set. The World No. 142 Rodionov was bidding to become the lowest-ranked Stuttgart finalist since the start of the ATP Tour in 1990.

Cilic didn’t drop a first-service point (13/13) in the first set as he improved to a 33-26 record in semi-finals. The 32-year-old is looking to claim his first title since winning the cinch Championships in 2018. He leads Auger-Aliassime 2-0 in their ATP Head2Head Series with this their first meeting on grass.