(Tennis news) Felix Auger-Aliassime finally won his maiden tour title at Rotterdam as he beat Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets. The 1st time tour winner did not lose a single point on the first serve in the opening set and had 4 aces which gave him the best start to the final. In the second set, the world number 4 could only win 2 points on his second serve while losing 7 of them.
After taking a 5-1 lead in the second set, it was clear that there was no looking back for Felix as he was only a game away from winning the championship, both the sets did not take more than 40 minutes. 67 points had a rally length of 0-4 shots and there were only 8 points in which there were more than 9 shots.
Felix was playing in his 9th final, after taking 8 runner trophies the Canadian is now a Masters 500 winner. The pair was meeting for the 8th time with Tsitsipas winning the last five matches and the world number 9 recorded his first victory over his rival in three years. The Greek player leads their head to head meeting with 5 wins while the 21 year old has three straight set victories. It was their second meeting in a final after Marseille in 2020 which Tsitsipas won. The 23 year old was looking for his 8th title but suffered his 11th loss in a final. He is now only 2 wins away from 200 career wins and 2 more losses would mean 100 career losses.
“It has not been the smoothest road since my first final three years ago,” Auger-Aliassime said during the trophy ceremony. “It is an amazing day for me to get my first title and especially here. I played my first ATP main draw here a couple of years ago, so it is right that I won my first title here.”
Only Daniil Medvedev and Taylor Fritz have beaten Felix this season and the Russian has been able to do it twice. There will be no changes in the rankings as of now, Felix is only a few points behind 8th placed Casper Ruud. Tsitsipas needed a win in the final to reach closer to Alexander Zverev who is 500 points ahead. After winning the ATP Cup, reaching the quarterfinals of the Australian Open and now the title win puts Felix on top this season with 12 victories in 15 matches.
