By Canadian Press

Auger-Aliassime advances to Qatar Open semifinals after Medvedev retires with illness

Feb 20, 2025 | 10:59 AM

DOHA — Montreal’s Felix Auger-Aliassime advanced to the semifinals of the Qatar Open tennis tournament after Russia’s Daniil Medvedev retired from their quarterfinal with an illness.

Auger-Aliassime won the first set of Thursday’s match 6-3 before Medvedev, who was seeded fourth at the ATP 500 tournament, left the court.

The 24-year-old Canadian won 89 per cent of his service points and had four aces in a dominant first set on which he didn’t face break point.

Auger-Ailassime went up 4-3 in the set with a break, and won on return again in the deciding game.

“I felt he was playing normal, but I don’t know. I don’t know how he feels,” Auger-Aliassime said in his on-court interview. “But on my part, it felt very normal. And then I broke, I held my serve. And he just told (chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani) that he didn’t want to shake our hands because he was sick.

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“I hope it’s nothing too bad. But of course, I was surprised.”

Auger-Aliassime advanced to a semifinal Friday against Russian fifth seed Andrey Rublev despite winning just one complete match in Doha.

He survived a tough first-round match against French qualifier Quentin Halys, then advanced to the quarterfinals when second-round opponent Hamad Medjedovic of Serbia withdrew with a leg injury he sustained in a first-round upset of sixth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.

“It’s a weird week so far because normally you win three matches to get to this part,” Auger-Aliassime said. “I got through the first round, different conditions than the past weeks. And then after that, I played a set only when I should have won at least four. I don’t know what to say, it’s weird.”

Auger-Aliassime had a similar path to the final of last year’s Madrid Open, where he advanced with two mid-match retirements and a walkover before losing to Rublev in the championship match.

Auger-Aliassime improved to 2-7 against Medvedev and will also be in tough against Rublev, who holds a 5-1 advantage in their head-to-head series.

Auger-Aliassime, who came into the tournament ranked 23rd in the world, is seeking his eighth ATP title and third this year.

Rublev, advanced to the semifinals with a 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (8) win over second seed Alex de Minaur of Australia.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 20, 2025.

The Canadian Press