Felix Auger-Aliassime crashes out in Marrakech against Molcan

Felix Auger-Aliassime is done in Marrakech as the Canadian lost a very competitive affair to Alex Molcan of Slovakia 4-6 6-2 6-7(7).

From the start, it was evident that Auger-Aliassime would have problems with Molcan who is very skilled in tennis on clay. The Slovakian moves well on the court and is capable to attack rather relentlessly. While capable of defending, Auger doesn't play defensive tennis that well. Molcan took an early 3-1 lead which he lost later.

At 4-4, Auger lost his serve once more but had a golden chance to rebreak in the next game with a 40-0 lead. Ultimately Molcan hung on to win the opening set with 6-4. There were just too many opportunities left on the table for Auger and he did not serve well at all. The 2nd set wasn't much better by Auger as he once again serve rather poorly but he was matched by Molcan in that regard.

What Auger did do is play the crucial rallies better as he converted the break chances that he had while serving break points on his own serve. And then came the 3rd set and what a battle it was. It lasted 78 minutes with both players having pretty good chances overall. Molcan took an early break but gave it away. Auger stabilized rather well and put a lot of pressure on the Slovakian but Molcan held his nerve.

We ended up in a tiebreak where Molcan played a bit better early jumping out to a 5-3 lead. Auger turned it around saving a match point in the process and getting his own. In the end, Molcan took his 2nd match point to move on 9-7.