CINCINNATI, Ohio — After disappointing showings at their national championships, Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime and Leylah Fernandez rebounded with first-round wins Wednesday at the Cincinnati Open tennis tournament.
Montreal’s Auger-Aliassime cruised into the second round with a 6-3, 6-1 win over American qualifier Aleksandar Kovacevic.
Fernandez, from Laval, Que., was down a set and behind an early break before rebounding to beat China’s Yuan Yue 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Both players stumbled in singles competition at last week’s National Bank Open tournaments in Montreal and Toronto after returning to North America from the Paris Olympics.
Auger-Aliassime lost 6-3, 6-2 to Italy’s Flavio Cobolli in the first round of the Montreal tournament. Fernandez made it to the second round in Toronto before being defeated 6-4, 6-2 by American qualifier Ashlyn Krueger.
That followed an eventful Paris Olympics for both players, particularly Auger-Aliassime. The 24-year-old won mixed-doubles bronze with Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski while also advancing to the bronze-medal match of the men’s singles competition before losing a tough three-set match to Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti.
Fernandez advanced to the third round of the women’s singles tournament in Paris.
On Wednesday, Auger-Aliassime picked up his fifth break of Kovacevic to go up 5-1 in the second set then served out for the win by converting his first match point.
Auger-Aliassime will next face Norway’s Casper Ruud in the second round of the tournament, which is a Masters event on the ATP Tour and a WTA 1000 event on the women’s tour.
The two last faced each other in the men’s singles quarterfinals at the Olympics, with Auger-Aliassime winning 6-4, 6-7, 6-3.
Fernandez came back with a solid third set against Yuan in which she converted 14-of-21 first-serve points, including two aces, and scored a pair of breaks.
She will next face fourth seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan. It will be the first meeting between the players.