Top seed Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada survived a scare in the second round of the UniCredit Firenze Open, beating Germany’s Oscar Otte 6-4, 6-7 (2), 6-2 on Thursday in Florence, Italy.
Otte had rallied from down 3-1 in the second set to get to the tiebreaker, which he won handily. But Auger-Aliassime, who served up 13 aces, won the final four games of the pivotal third set to get by the German, who had eight aces and saved five of 10 break points.
Auger-Aliassime will meet American eighth seed Brandon Nakashima in the quarterfinals. Nakashima was a 6-3, 6-4 winner over Turkish qualifier Altug Celikbilek.
Third seed Lorenzo Musetti of Italy beat Spain’s Bernabe Zapata Miralles 6-3, 6-0 in just shy of 69 minutes, while Mackenzie McDonald of the U.S. advanced past Italian wild card Francesco Passaro 6-4, 7-5.
Gijon Open
American Sebastian Korda rallied to take down Spanish third seed Roberto Bautista Agut 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 in two hours and 44 minutes to advance to the quarterfinals in Spain.
Korda smashed 16 aces without committing a double fault. He also saved seven of nine break points and held a massive 52-14 advantage over Bautista Agut in winners.
Korda’s quarterfinal opponent will be Andy Murray of Great Britain. In the draw as a wild card, the three-time Grand Slam champion outlasted Argentina’s Pedro Cachin 2-6, 7-5, 7-6 (3).
Top seed Andrey Rublev of Russia also needed three sets to beat Belarusian foe Ilya Ivashka, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4. Fourth seed Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina defeated French qualifier Manuel Guinard 7-6 (5), 6-2.
–Field Level Media