20-year-old Felix Auger Aliassime is one of the rising stars in the men’s game and has been in good form this year. He reached the semi-finals of the Adelaide event in January and the finals in Rotterdam and Marseille in February prior to the tennis shutdown.
Auger-Aliassime reached the second week of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career at the US Open, where he lost to eventual champion Dominic Thiem in the fourth round. However, he then suffered a first round exit at the Italian Open last week.
🗣 POINT OF THE TOURNAMENT NOMINEEtweener 💨 sprint to the net 🤚 forehand flick for Felix Auger-Aliassime@felixtennis | #USOpen pic.twitter.com/Xg9iwfmOQa
His opponent on Tuesday is 25-year-old Lorenzo Sonego, who is ranked No. 47 – just one spot below his personal best. The Italian won a round in Rome last week, which is only the second time in nine events that he has done so in 2020.
But Sonego played some of his best tennis in 2019, winning his 1st ATP Tour title at Antalya. He also reached the semifinals of Kitzbuhel and the quarterfinals of the Monte Carlo Masters, apart from winning a Challenger title in Genoa.
Felix Auger-Aliassime and Lorenzo Sonego have never faced each other on the tour, so the head-to-head between the two players currently stands at 0-0.
Felix Auger-Aliassime, who loves playing the piano in his free time, has been steadily rising up the ranks in recent years. After reaching the last 16 in New York, Aliassime told the ATP Tour website:
The Canadian knows how to play on clay, having trained on the surface during his younger days in Montreal. He reached the finals at the Rio Open and the Lyon Open on clay in 2019, and three of his titles on the Challenger circuit have come on this surface.
Sonego may have won his only title on grass, but coming from Italy he is very familiar with the red dirt. It remains to be seen, however, whether he can counter Auger-Aliassime’s booming groundstrokes on Tuesday.
