BERLIN, GERMANY —
Roger Federer suffered a setback in his preparations
for Wimbledon after crashing out of the second round of the ATP grass court
tournament in Halle on Wednesday.
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Federer, who will bid to win a ninth title at Wimbledon which starts June
28, suffered a shock 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 defeat to 20-year-old Canadian Felix Auger
Aliassime, who is almost half Federer's age.
"It's amazing, for sure I didn't expect this," Auger Aliassime
told Eurosport after beating one of his heroes at the first attempt on the ATP
tour.
"I wanted to win,
but Roger Federer is my idol and it was a huge honor to play him."
Federer is exactly 19 years older than Auger Aliassime as the pair share the
same birthday on August 8, while the Swiss ace turns 40 this year.
"I always thought he would be gone by the time I joined the tour,"
admitted the Canadian, who turned professional in 2017.
"I was a little nervous when I realized I could win, but I was playing really
well, almost perfect tennis."
Federer had pulled out of the fourth round of the French Open last week to
give himself extra rest after two operations on his right knee in 2020 and a
year of rehab.
Halle is his traditional grass court warm-up event before playing at
Wimbledon and he won the tournament played near Bielefeld for the tenth time in
2019.
As the 2020 tournament was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Federer
was the defending champion in Halle.
However, despite losing the first set, Auger Aliassime, ranked 21 in
the world, showed no signs of being intimidated by Federer, who has won 20
Grand Slams.
The Canadian blasted down 13 aces and earned 15 break points, of which he
managed to covert just three.
Federer, who had said he needs ten games to prepare for Wimbledon, won the
first set with ease, but struggled from there on.
He soon started to labor in the second set as Auger Aliassime converted his
fourth break point to go 4-2 up, then served out to level the match at one set
all.
It was one-way traffic in the deciding set as Auger Aliassime broke Federer
to take a commanding 3-0 lead and eventually converted the first of his three
match points.
In the quarter-finals, the Canadian will play either German Jan-Lennard
Struff, who knocked out top seed Daniil Medvedev in the first round, or
American qualifier Marcos Giron.
With Federer out, it means Germany's Alexander Zverev and Russia's Andrey
Rublev are the only seeds left in the Halle draw.
Auger Aliassime is hoping to win the first ATP title of his career in Halle
after losing all of his last eight finals, including last week's grass court
tournament in Stuttgart.
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