Felix Auger-Aliassime extended his winning streak to 15 matches when he ended Gilles Simon’s career with a 6-1, 6-3 victory in the Rolex Paris Masters third round on Thursday afternoon. Auger-Aliassime is coming off consecutive titles in Florence, Antwerp, and Basel–a surge that helped him officially qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals earlier this week.
One of the eighth-ranked Canadian’s recent victims (in the Antwerp final) was Holger Rune, who is on a hot streak of his own. The 19-year-old Dane has reached three straight finals (Sofia, Stockholm, and Basel) and is 16-2 in his last 18 matches after beating Andrey Rublev 6-4, 7-5 on Thursday.
Next up for Rune is Carlos Alcaraz, while Auger-Aliassime will face Frances Tiafoe.
Alcaraz booked his spot in the quarterfinals by crushing Grigor Dimitrov 6-1, 6-3 in just one hour and 12 minutes. The top-ranked Spaniard broke Dimitrov five times while winning 13 of 18 second-serve return points.
“I started playing pretty well,” Alcaraz assessed. “[Grigor’s] level is very much not the level you saw today, but I played very well. At the end of the second set it was tougher for me; he came back, he raised the level, and obviously it was tough. He had the chance to go up in the second set. I had to stay calm in that moment and show my best to not allow him to go up.”
Also making his way to the last eight without any trouble was Novak Djokovic, who got the best of Karen Khachanov 6-4, 6-1 in a rematch of the 2018 Paris final–which was won by Khachanov. Djokovic gave back a break midway through the first set but otherwise dominated the match from start to finish. The 35-year-old Serb will battle Lorenzo Musetti for a place in the semis.
“Khachanov is someone I know really well,” Djokovic noted. “We train (together) a lot and we played almost 10 times against each other on different surfaces…. He beat me four years ago in the final, so I know he likes this surface, he likes these conditions.
“The first (set) was quite even; I had my chances, he had a break, and he was hanging on and I broke his serve in the 10th game of the first set and I think after that the momentum shifted. In the second set I was a different player. I think I stepped it up even more, served better, and I’m just really pleased with the way I finished.”
It will be Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Tommy Paul in the other Paris quarterfinal.
Felix on fire, Rune red hot
Felix must run out of steam