Montreal’s Felix Auger-Aliassime saw his run at the U.S. Open end with a tough loss in straight sets Monday, but he hopes his performance on one of tennis’ biggest stages can help inspire other young Canadians.
The 20 year old battled No. 2 seed Dominic Thiem of Austria to a tiebreak in the first set of the round of 16 match on Monday. But he struggled in the second and third sets, committing 51 unforced errors in the 7-6(4), 6-1, 6-1 loss.
“I was able to come back well in the first, gave myself a chance to maybe win the first and then, you know, I missed at the important moments,” Auger-Aliassime told reporters after the match.
Thiem broke Auger-Aliassime five times in three sets.
“I feel like that really gave him confidence and hurt me more than it did anything,” the Canadian said. “Then from that, it was just tough. He was playing good, heavy, and I was just playing worse and worse.”
WATCH | Auger-Aliassime falls in straight sets to No. 2 seed
Austria’s Dominic Thiem wasted no time in his 7-6 (4), 6-1, 6-1 victory over Montreal’s Felix Auger-Aliassime. 1:45
Auger-Aliassime came into the tournament as the No. 15 seed and is the first player born in the 2000s to make the fourth round of a Grand Slam.
He beat three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray in the second round.
There are a lot of positives to take from the first three matches, Auger-Aliassime said.
“I will try to see what I can learn and see what I can improve from this loss in particular, and I think I’ll focus on the good things that also happened this week and go from there,” he said.
Canadians have performed well at this year’s U.S. Open. Auger-Aliassime was one of a record three Canadian men to reach the round of 16.
“I hope it inspires kids from our country, from our respective provinces and cities, you know, just to show them that it’s possible,” he said. “We were showing that we’re a country that can be dominant in this sport. We have already shown with the finals last year in Davis Cup, but I think now we show that we can go deep in these tournaments.”
Pospisil falls in straight sets
Vancouver’s Vasek Pospisil also made the round of 16 before he was beaten in straight sets by No. 21 seed Alex de Minaur of Australia on Monday.
Pospisil, ranked 94th, said he was battling quadricep and abdominal strains when he failed to convert on four set points in the first set en route to a 7-6 (6), 6-3, 6-2 loss.
“I just tried to manage it but it impacted my serve the most out of all my strokes, so that was not ideal,” he told reporters after the match. “But it is what it is … It’s a Grand Slam so it’s very physical and at some point your body’s going to take a beating and I think it definitely affected me a little bit today.”
WATCH | Pospisil eliminated in 4th round at U.S. Open:
Australia’s Alex de Minaur defeated Vasek Pospisil 7-6 (6), 6-3, 6-2 in their fourth round match at the U.S. Open. 1:39
De Minaur broke Pospisil twice in the second set and rolled to victory, sending the 21 year old to his first Grand Slam quarterfinal.
De Minaur’s speed is difficult to keep up with, Pospisil said.
“What’s most impressive is that he never breaths,” he said with a laugh. “He runs side to side and he’s never out of breath. He defies the laws of biology, I guess. It’s pretty impressive but he’s definitely a freak of nature.”
Pospisil upset No. 25 seed Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., and No. 8 seed Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain before his surprise run came to an end against de Minaur.
Shapovalov in action Tuesday
No. 12 seed Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., remains in the tournament. He beat No. 7 seed David Goffin in four sets on Sunday night to set up a quarterfinal match against No. 20 seed Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain on Tuesday.
Carreno Busta advanced when the top-ranked Novak Djokovic was kicked out of their match for accidentally hitting a line judge in the throat with a tennis ball after dropping a game.
WATCH | Shapovalov, Bopanna ousted in U.S. Open doubles draw:
Serena Williams came from behind to defeat Maria Sakkari of Greece 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3. 1:18
Shapovalov is the first Canadian man in history to reach the U.S. Open quarterfinals. Previously, Canadian men were 0-12 in the round of 16.
Earlier on Monday, Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski and American partner Alison Riske lost 6-4, 6-2 to Americans Asia Muhammad and Taylor Townsend in a women’s doubles quarterfinal on Monday.
In men’s doubles quartefinal action, Shapovalov and partner Rohan Bopanna of India lost 7-5, 7-5 to Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands and Horia Tecau of Romania on Monday.
Serena Williams advances to quarters
Serena Williams is into the quarter-finals at the U.S. Open for a 12th consecutive appearance.
It wasn’t easy, though.
Williams needed to come from behind in the third set before taking another step closer to Grand Slam title No. 24 by edging Maria Sakkari 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3.
WATCH | Serena Williams tops Sakkari in rematch:
Novak Djokovic’s U.S. Open was cut short after he hit a line judge with a discarded tennis ball during his fourth-round match against Pablo Carreño Busta. 4:17
This was a rematch from less than two weeks ago at the Western & Southern Open. That one was won by Sakkari, also in three sets, when Williams dealt with leg cramps and faded down the stretch.
This time, Williams was two points from victory at 6-all in the tiebreaker but dropped the next two points and the set. Then she trailed 2-0 in the third before turning things around.
Williams, who turns 39 in less than three weeks, will face unseeded opponent Tsvetana Pironkova — for a semifinal berth.
The American has won six of her 23 major singles championships at the U.S. Open.
Djokovic fined after hitting line judge with ball
Novak Djokovic has been fined $10,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct at the U.S. Open, where he was defaulted for accidentally hitting a line judge in the throat with a ball after losing a game.
That amount is half the $20,000 that a player can be docked for violating the unsportsmanlike conduct clause of the Grand Slam rule book.
Djokovic has also been docked an additional $7,500 for skipping the mandatory post-match news conference after being defaulted.
The $10,000 is in addition to the $250,000 in prize money the U.S. Tennis Association said Djokovic would forfeit after being disqualified in the first set of his fourth-round match Sunday.
WATCH | Novak Djokovic drills line judge with ball:
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.
The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.
The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.
Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.
The final is scheduled for Saturday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.
EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.
The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.
Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.
TAKEAWAYS
Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.
Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.
KEY MOMENT
New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.
KEY RETURN?
Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.
OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN
The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.
The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.
UP NEXT
Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns, and Kareem Hunt pounded into the end zone from two yards out in overtime to give the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs a 30-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.
DeAndre Hopkins had two touchdown receptions for the Chiefs (8-0), who drove through the rain for two fourth-quarter scores to take a 24-17 lead with 4:17 left. But then Kansas City watched as Baker Mayfield led the Bucs the other way in the final minute, hitting Ryan Miller in the end zone with 27 seconds to go in regulation time.
Tampa Bay (4-5) elected to kick the extra point and force overtime, rather than go for a two-point conversion and the win. And it cost the Buccaneers when Mayfield called tails and the coin flip was heads. Mahomes and the Chiefs took the ball, he was 5-for-5 passing on their drive in overtime, and Hunt finished his 106-yard rushing day with the deciding TD plunge.
Travis Kelce had 14 catches for 100 yards with girlfriend Taylor Swift watching from a suite, and Hopkins finished with eight catches for 86 yards as the Chiefs ran their winning streak to 14 dating to last season. They became the sixth Super Bowl champion to start 8-0 the following season.
Mayfield finished with 200 yards and two TDs passing for the Bucs, who have lost four of their last five.
It was a memorable first half for two players who had been waiting to play in Arrowhead Stadium.
The Bucs’ Rachaad White grew up about 10 minutes away in a tough part of Kansas City, but his family could never afford a ticket for him to see a game. He wound up on a circuitous path through Division II Nebraska-Kearney and a California junior college to Arizona State, where he eventually became of a third-round pick of Tampa Bay in the 2022 draft.
Two year later, White finally got into Arrowhead — and the end zone. He punctuated his seven-yard scoring run in the second quarter, which gave the Bucs a 7-3 lead, by nearly tossing the football into the second deck.
Then it was Hopkins’ turn in his first home game since arriving in Kansas City from a trade with the Titans.
The three-time All-Pro, who already had caught four passes, reeled in a third-down heave from Mahomes amid triple coverage for a 35-yard gain inside the Tampa Bay five-yard line. Three plays later, Mahomes found him in the back of the end zone, and Hopkins celebrated his first TD with the Chiefs with a dance from “Remember the Titans.”
Tampa Bay tried to seize control with consecutive scoring drives to start the second half. The first ended with a TD pass to Cade Otton, the latest tight end to shred the Chiefs, and Chase McLaughlin’s 47-yard field goal gave the Bucs a 17-10 lead.
The Chiefs answered in the fourth quarter. Mahomes marched them through the rain 70 yards for a tying touchdown pass, which he delivered to Samaje Perine while landing awkwardly and tweaking his left ankle, and then threw a laser to Hopkins on third-and-goal from the Buccaneers’ five-yard line to give Kansas City the lead.
Tampa Bay promptly went three-and-out, but its defence got the ball right back, and this time Mayfield calmly led his team down field. His capped the drive with a touchdown throw to Miller — his first career TD catch — with 27 seconds to go, and Tampa Bay elected to play for overtime.
UP NEXT
Buccaneers: Host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
