Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada returned to the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships and worked to pull out a 6-3, 7-6 (4) opening-round win over China’s Zhizhen Zhang on Monday.
Auger-Aliassime was a finalist in 2025 and lost to Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas. On Monday, he saved all four break points he faced but Zhang saved five match points — two in the 10th game of the second set and three more in the 12th to force the tiebreaker.
Auger-Aliassime’s next opponent will be French qualifier Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, who edged Tunisian wild card Moez Echargui 7-6 (3), 6-7 (3), 7-6 (4). Mpetshi Perricard hit 29 aces in the two-hour, 36-minute marathon.
British No. 4 seed Jack Draper beat French qualifier Quentin Halys 7-6 (8), 6-3, and Swiss wild card Stan Wawrinka beat fellow wild card Benjamin Hassan of Lebanon 7-5, 6-3.
BCI Seguros Chile Open
Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann won the first seven games of his first-round match and beat Dusan Lajovic of Serbia 6-0, 6-3 in Santiago, Chile.
Hanfmann had a 22-9 edge in winners and overcame 24 unforced errors in a tidy 74 minutes. No. 7 seed Francisco Comesana, meanwhile, needed two hours and 51 minutes to get past Spaniard Pedro Martinez 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (4). Comesana saved one match point in the third set to stay alive.
Comesana’s second-round opponent will be Italian qualifier Andrea Pellegrino, who beat Argentine qualifier Alex Barrena 6-2, 2-6, 6-1. The last match of the day was still going, pitting Chilean Nicolas Jarry against Croatia’s Dino Prizmic.
–Field Level Media
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