Auger-Aliassime begins Swiss Indoors title defence with win over Baez

BASEL, Switzerland — Two-time defending champion Felix Auger-Aliassime advanced to the second round of the Swiss Indoors tennis tournament with a 7-5, 6-1 win over Argentina's Sebastian Baez on Wednesday.

Auger-Aliassime took a tightly contested first set with a break in the 12th game when Baez hit Auger-Aliassime's service return long.

The 24-year-old from Montreal then dominated the second set, breaking Baez early to take a 2-0 lead and again in the sixth game to serve for the match.

He finished Baez off with his eighth ace of the match.

Auger-Aliassime improved to 2-0 against Baez, who is ranked 26th in the world, following up on a straight-sets win in September as Canada cruised to a Davis Cup group stage win over Argentina

Auger-Aliassime, seeded eighth in Basel and ranked 19th in the world, will next face No. 50 Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard of France.

The Canadian was a wild card at last year's Swiss Indoors tournament and advanced to beat Poland's Hubert Hurkacz in the final. He won the 2022 final against Denmark's Holger Rune for his fourth tournament victory of the year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2024.