Auger-Aliassime battles past Maxime Cressy in Dubai

Felix Auger-Aliassime successfully navigated a very tricky clash with Maxime Cressy in Dubai beating the American player in three sets 7-6(4) 3-6 6-3.

Cressy will always be a tough out because the American is capable of making your life very miserable with his serve and aggressive play. He upped his returning aggressiveness this year and it worked out well so far. There is always heavy pressure coming from the return. His serve and volley game has become more complete making him a more dangerous player overall.

Both players played really well in the first set of the match hitting over 10 winners. Cressy gambled a lot on his serve committing 12 double faults, more than he had aces (11). It paid off to an extent as he saved all 8 break points he faced but also failed to use the only Auger gave him. The tiebreak saw the Canadian win it 7-4.

The second set saw Cressy play really well as things finally fell into place for him. The serve was more stable, the groundstrokes were solid and he hit 16 winners to take the second set 6-3. The final set saw Auger flip the script. He didn't serve that well but he completely outplayed Cressy from the baseline whose serve let him down a little bit. Final score in the 3rd set 6-3 for Auger.