By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, November 11, 2020
A stubborn Salvatore Caruso saved all six break points he faced surprising Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-4, 6-4 advancing to his second career quarterfinal in Sofia.
Photo credit: Sofia Open Facebook
The first match was the final stop for the Sofia Open’s top two seeds.
A stubborn Salvatore Caruso saved all six break points he faced surprising Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-4, 6-4 advancing to his second career quarterfinal.
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The 82nd-ranked Caruso played cleaner tennis throughout scoring one of the biggest wins of his career. He will play either 49th-ranked Frenchman Richard Gasquet or 399th-ranked wild card Jonas Forejtek for a semifinal spot.
The second-seeded Auger-Aliassime was erratic on pivotal points suffering his fourth straight loss in his season finale. Auger-Aliassime’s exit comes less than 24 hours after his buddy, top-seeded Denis Shapovalov was bounced in his opener 6-2, 6-4 by 30-year-old Radu Albot in his ATP debut as a No. 1 seed.
Like Shapovalov yesterday, Auger-Aliassime gave away too many crucial errors, including several miscues on relatively routine rally balls. Auger-Aliassime committed five double faults three days after he partnered Hubert Hurkacz to win his first Masters 1000 doubles championship at the Rolex Paris Masters.
Credit Caruso, whose previous best win this season was an opening-round Rome upset of 49th-ranked Tennys Sandgren, for using his all-court skills at the right time and playing with the patience that allowed Auger-Aliassime to implode on pivotal points.
In the seventh game, Auger-Aliassime broke himself double faulting and flying a forehand long to give Caruso a 4-3 lead.
When the Canadian tried to push the play in baseline rallies, he was frequently misfiring well beyond the baseline. Caruso stepped into the court and wrong-footed Auger-Aliassime lashing a forehand down the line to consolidate the break in the eighth game.
Caruso crashed a first serve down the T closing the 45-minute opening set in which he won 13 of 16 first-serve points.
The world No. 21 smacked his fifth ace capping a love hold for a 2-1 second-set lead.
The match turned the Italian’s way when he fought off five break points in a gripping fourth game.
Dialing in his groundstrokes, Auger-Aliassime unleashed some heavy hitting gaining his third break point in the fourth game only to miss a forehand long. Caruso drew an error to fend off a fourth break point.
Attacking a mid-court forehand, Auger-Aliassime narrowly missed the sideline on his fifth break point of the game. Caruso withstood all the pressure standing strong through a tense test to hold and level after four games.
Haunted by all of those near misses, Auger-Aliassime couldn’t shake off lost opportunity. The 34-year-old Frenchman spit up two double faults in the ensuing game to face double break point.
The 27-year-old Caruso fought off a body serve into the hip, regained his balance and attacked behind a crosscourt forehand. Caruso blocked a forehand volley into the corner drawing a netted pass to break for 3-2.
Caruso held at 15 to confirm the break and extend his lead to 4-2.
Serving for the quarterfinals, Caruso made a fine full stretch forehand volley and bolted an ace down the middle for match point. When Auger-Aliassime mis-fired on a final shot, Caruso was through in one hour, 40 minutes.
Caruso is the second Italian to reach the last eight joining 19-year-old phenom Jannik Sinner in the quarterfinals.
Sinner, who reached his first Grand Slam quarterfinal at Roland Garros last month, won 32 of 37 first-serve points and saved both break points he faced in a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Swiss lucky loser Marc-Andrea Huesler.
It is Sinner’s fourth quarterfinal of the season and sets up a rematch of the 2019 Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan with Aussie Alex de Minaur, whom Sinner swept in straight sets last fall.
Earlier today, the third-seeded de Minaur saved two set points in the second set stopping 114th-ranked Russian qualifier Aslan Karatsev 6-4, 7-6(5).
"He's a very solid player, he's moving well on the court,” Sinner said of de Minaur. “The last time we played in Milan was a year ago. It's been a long time since then, and we've both been able to develop our game.
Tomorrow's going to be a completely different fight. I'll try to serve well, place the ball deep and move it around the court. It's certainly going to be my toughest fight since the start of the tournament. But I like to play [indoors], especially at the end of the year when you have a lot of games behind you.”
Ten days ago, Australian John Millman topped French left-hander Adrian Mannarino 7-5, 6-1 to collect his first career ATP title in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
Today, Millman fended off Frenchman Gilles Simon 7-5, 6-7(3) 6-2 in a three hour, 15-minute marathon to reach his third quarterfinal of the season. The 38th-ranked Millman raised his 2020 record to 18-12.