Tennis: Felix Auger-Aliassime scores an irresistible comeback in the second round in Rome

Just days after losing in the final in Madrid, Felix Auger-Aliassime began his journey in Rome by recording a 6-1, 7-6 win against Boteach van de Zandschulp, on Saturday evening in Italy.

The FAA were impressive to overcome a 1-5 deficit in the second set to finally win the tiebreaker after a battle that lasted more than two hours.

Auger-Aliassime was decisive in the first round. The Kiwi player took advantage of two break-point opportunities, in addition to saving three chances for Van de Zandschulp, to win the set in just seven games and 39 minutes.

The first set ended when Van de Zandschulp sent a return serve into the net.

Auger-Aliassime had difficulty getting points from his second ball at the start of the second set. Van de Zandschulp took the opportunity to finally break Quebec's serve in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead, when Auger-Aliassime missed a shot.

Van de Zandschulp did it again during Quebec's next game on serve, giving himself a 5-1 lead.

The Dutch player missed three chances to break his opponent's serve, then wasted a set point before dropping his serve on the fourth chance.

History repeated itself two games later, when Auger-Aliassime managed to get back to an even serve by breaking Van de Zandschulp again on a slightly long ball from the Dutchman.

After a fourth straight match won by Auger-Aliassime, Van de Zandschulp stopped the bleeding to take a 6-5 lead. Then he got a second point to decide the set after serving Auger-Aliassime at 5-6, but he quickly overcame him and it was necessary to resort to a tie-break in the end.

Auger-Aliassime squandered a 4-2 lead during the tiebreak, then the match point at 6-5. However, he used his second chance to close the books with a huge smash.

In the next round, Auger-Aliassime will face Australian and ninth seed Alex de Minaur.