Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime qualified for the quarter-finals of the Paris Masters on Thursday with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over German Daniel Altmaier.
The ninth seed from Montreal bounced back after dropping the opening set, winning 87 percent of his first serve points and converting three of 10 break chances.
Auger-Aliassime finished with seven aces and three double faults in the two-hour, eleven-minute match.
The victory follows his marathon 5-7, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4) victory over Frenchman Alexandre Muller on Wednesday, when he relied on 21 aces to advance.
“Three sets all week. It’s been a battle all week,” Auger-Aliassime said. “Just fight back, I have that feeling every day. That’s why I came today, knowing that it might be tough again.
“Keep calm, stay patient and try to find solutions. I’ve tried to dig deep. I know I have solutions within me, but it’s just about making the right choices and executing them right.”
Auger-Aliassime didn’t panic after a slow first set and found a way to Altmaier’s serve while taking his career record against the German to 2-2.
“I started serving better as the match went on. I had trouble with his change of pace on serve,” he said. “It was just a bit of a confusion in my head as to where to come back. I found a way to put pressure on him and broke him three times in the rest of the match.”
Auger-Aliassime, currently ninth in the ATP Race to Turin standings, remains in the hunt for one of the final spots at the season-ending ATP Finals. The top eight players on the men’s tour qualify for the event.
Thursday’s victory gave Auger-Aliassime 3,395 points in the Race to Turin standings, 290 behind eighth-place Lorenzo Musetti, who has already been eliminated from the Paris Masters.
A win over Monaco wild card Valentin Vacherot in the quarter-finals would put Auger-Aliassime just 90 points behind Musetti, while a tournament win would put him 510 points ahead.
After Paris, there is little chance of making up ground in the race, with only a pair of ATP 250 events taking place simultaneously in Athens and Metz, France, before the ATP Finals begin on November 9.
World number 40 Vacherot, who has risen 227 places in the ATP rankings in the past four months, continued his excellent form with a 7-6 (4), 6-4 victory over Britain’s Cameron Norrie in the Round of 16.
Vacherot is on a 10-match winning streak at Masters level and won the last ATP 1000 tournament in Shanghai, beating his cousin Arthur Rinderknech of France in the final.
Norrie entered the quarterfinals after upsetting world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz.
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