Auger-Aliassime ends Engel's winning streak

The Canadian defeats German shooting star Justin Engel 7-6, 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the BOSS OPEN.

In the end, the world number 29 proved too strong for the 17-year-old from Nuremberg. Nevertheless, Engel gave more than just a glimpse of his talent in front of a packed center court.

Under a bright blue sky at Weissenhof, Engel had to fend off a break point in his very first service game. Felix Auger-Aliassime kept up the pressure and finally broke to take a 3-2 lead. However, Engel struck back immediately and evened the score at 3-3. After that, both players held their serve, with Auger-Aliassime clearly dominating the tiebreak 7-3.

In the second set both players managed to hold their serve. In the eighth game, however, the 24-year-old Canadian struck coldly, took the break and served out the match with an ace after 1 hour and 38 minutes.

After the match, the experienced Canadian praised his young opponent: "It wasn't easy, as you can see from the result. He has a great serve and plays very precisely for his size. If he continues like this, it will be a problem for us experienced players."

Engel took the defeat in stride: “His serve was so incredibly good today that I was under pressure in my own service games all the time. But it was great fun to play in front of this crowd again. I can't wait to play here again next year.”

In Saturday's semifinals, Auger-Aliassime will face the winner of the match between Marton Fucsovics (HUN) and Taylor Fritz (USA).

Auger-Aliassime – Fritz in the semifinals

In Saturday's semi-final, Auger-Aliassime will face Taylor Fritz, setting up a clash between the tournament's No. 4 and No. 2 seeds. Fritz had no trouble in his quarter-final against Hungary's Marton Fucsovics, winning 6-3, 6-4 to avenge his defeat at the same venue two years ago.