Felix Auger-Aliassime faces Dan Evans in the third round of the 2022 Australian Open on Saturday, January 22nd 2022.
Will Felix get himself far into yet another tournament after his strong start to the season, or will Dan Evans come out here and get one of his biggest wins to get into the second week of the AO?
Dan Evans had a walkover in the second round, as Arthur Rinderknech pulled out of the tournament with an injury. Evans, has been playing well to start the 2022 season, and he will be proud of the fact that he has only lost 1 match so far this year. With this current run of form, Evans is showing us that he can compete with the best in the world on a consistent basis. However, this encounter in the third round will give him a chance to show us if he can do the same against top 10 players.
Felix Auger-Aliassime played a great and tight match against a fellow youngster in Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, beating him in what was 4 tiebreak sets. Felix’s first serve was really what kept him in control of that match, being able to hit 28 aces off of it. This really helped him during the tiebreaks where cheap points help to go a long way. With yet another tight performance under his belt, Felix will be happy that he saw it through and he will want to build on that entering the third round.
This is going to be the second meeting between both players, with Dan having won their only prior encounter. Dan is a great player, and on his day, I am sure that he can get a good win over Felix like he has done in the past. However, with the current form of the Canadian, as well as the fact that Dan has not faced much tough competition so far at the AO, I believe Felix is more optimally placed to be in his best form coming out here.