Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime fell 6-4, 7-6 (5) to American Taylor Fritz on Saturday in semifinal action at the Stuttgart Open.
The Montreal native played Fritz close throughout the match, going back and forth to tie the first set at 4-4 before Fritz pulled away to win it.
Auger-Aliassime then pushed the back-and-forth second set to a tiebreaker, knotting the score at 4-4 and then being back 6-5 before Fritz capitalized on match point.
The 24-year-old Auger-Aliassime had 15 aces to just one double fault, and won 81 per cent of his first-serve points. However, he did not have a single break point chance and had 23 unforced errors to Fritz’s 12.
Fritz, on the other hand, had 10 aces to one double fault, won 86 per cent of his first-serve points and broke on one of his two chances.
Fritz will play Germany’s Alexander Zverev, who beat American Ben Shelton 7-6 (8), 7-6 (1) on Saturday, in Sunday’s final.