Felix fires past Ruud, sets Sinner QF showdown

Felix Auger-Aliassime earned his best clay-court win by PIF ATP Ranking by beating World No. 6 Casper Ruud on Tuesday at the Mutua Madrid Open. The Canadian, who was 11-10 this season entering the ATP Masters 1000, has now notched four consecutive victories in the Spanish capital to reach the quarter-finals, where he will meet Jannik Sinner.

Auger-Aliassime fired 32 winners in the match and won 24 of 28 net points, according to Infosys ATP Stats, hurting the Barcelona champion and Monte-Carlo finalist throughout with heavy baseline power. Ruud, who leads the ATP Tour with 31 victories this season, saw his seven-match winning streak snapped.

"Big win for me. Not only this year, overall in my career," said the Canadian, who had lost his previous three Lexus ATP Head2Head meetings with Ruud. "I knew coming in it was going to be the toughest match so far for me this week and it was. But I came out on top and played some great tennis, so really happy to be through."

Smile on his dial 😄@felixtennis taking in the moment ahead of facing Sinner in the Elite 8!@MutuaMadridOpen | #MMOPEN pic.twitter.com/7BjCrN2vFm

— ATP Tour (@atptour) April 30, 2024

The victory was Auger-Alaissime's 15th against a Top 10 opponent in the PIF ATP Rankings and his first since he beat Holger Rune en route to the Basel title last October. It was also his second Top 10 win on clay, after his win against Diego Schwartzman in Rome in 2021.

In the midst of his deepest tournament run of 2024, the 23-year-old is happy to see his hard work on the practice court paying off. 

"Just believing in my work. It's a marathon, this sport," he said. "I'm trying with my team to build a better level through the weeks. Sometimes it just doesn't go your way. I've had some tight losses in the last few weeks, but this time it did go my way and it's going more and more my way this week, so I'm really happy that I'm able to show what I've been working on.

"I feel like the backhand I'm hitting much better. I'm serving well, being more consistent with the second serve. All the things that I've been trying to work on are starting to show on the match court as well."

He will hope to continue his improvement when he meets Sinner in the quarter-finals. Auger-Aliassime holds a 2-0 Lexus ATP Head2Head record against the Italian World No. 2, with both wins coming in 2022—including a 6-1, 6-2 domination that year in Madrid.