Fourth-seeded Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime reached the French Open quarterfinals for the first time in dominant fashion, beating Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo 6-3, 7-5, 6-1 on Monday in Paris.
Things have seemingly gotten easier for the 25-year old as the tournament has progressed. He battled through a five-set win in the first round and won in four sets in the second and third before tallying his first sweep in the fourth round.
Auger-Aliassime was dominant on his serve to beat Tabilo, pairing 17 aces with just two double faults while winning 72.7% of his service points and saving all three break points he faced. He also converted 5 of 6 break-point opportunities on Tabilo’s serve.
“I’m so happy,” Auger-Aliassime said, in French, in his on-court interview. “It’s a childhood dream to even play here. I came here for the first time when I was maybe 12 and it’s always been a dream to play here. I’m not French. … But I feel at home. Thank you to everyone.”
Tabilo, who went deeper as he’d ever gone in a Grand Slam, had 18 winners to 30 unforced errors.
Auger-Aliassime, whose two deepest Slam runs came in the 2021 and 2025 U.S. Opens where he reached the semifinals, is the highest seed remaining on the top half of the bracket.
He’ll face No. 10 Flavio Cobolli of Italy for a spot in the semifinals after Cobolli ended American Zachary Svadja’s surprise run with a 6-2, 6-3, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (5) victory.
Cobolli, who had swept through his first three matches, finally lost a set but rallied to also make his first French Open quarterfinal behind 57 winners and seven converted breaks in 17 opportunities.
Elsewhere in the top half of the bracket, Italy’s Matteo Berrettini reached his seventh major quarterfinal — but his first since 2022 — with a 6-3, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (6) defeat of Argentina’s Juan Manuel Cerundolo.
Berrettini, who peaked as high as No. 6 in the world rankings, is competing in his first French Open since 2021 due to a series of injuries. Currently ranked 105th, he’s the lowest-ranked man to reach the Ronald Garros quarterfinals since Russian Igor Andreev (No. 125) in 2007.
“(Tennis) is the love of my life, because if it wasn’t I wouldn’t be here,” Berrettini said in his on-court interview after the win. “After all the setbacks, all the injuries, all the bad moments, I came back once again. There were moments where it was really tough to go back and hit the ball, because I wasn’t ready and sure of my confidence.”
There were only three total breaks in the match, with both players winning 70% or more of their service points. Cerundolo held a sizable ace advantage (16-5) but had far fewer winners (51-35).
Berrettini will face the winner of Monday evening’s matchup between No. 19 Frances Tiafoe and unseeded fellow Italian Matteo Arnaldi for a spot in the semifinals.
–Field Level Media
