Felix Auger-Aliassime scores 50th Masters 1000 win of career with victory over Ruud in Cincinnati

Felix Auger-Aliassime continued his recent mastery over Casper Ruud on Friday with a comprehensive 6-3, 6-1 victory over the three-time Grand Slam finalist in the second round of Cincinnati.

He’s now 3-0 against him this year, having defeated him twice on clay, in the fourth round of Madrid and in the quarterfinals of the Paris Olympics. He now leads the career head-to-head, too, 4-3.

It was also a milestone win for the Canadian—the 50th Masters 1000 win of his career, making him just the third man born in the 2000s to hit that number after Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.

He’s now 50-44 in his career at this level.

MOST MASTERS 1000 WINS FOR MEN BORN IN 2000s:
69: Jannik Sinner (born 2001)
59: Carlos Alcaraz (born 2003)
50: Felix Auger-Aliassime (born 2000) [playing Draper today]
33: Holger Rune (born 2003) [playing Monfils today]
28: Sebastian Korda (born 2000)
28: Lorenzo Musetti (born 2002)

In a match that was postponed from Thursday night due to rain, Auger-Aliassime was broken just once—when he was already up a double break at 5-2 in the first set—but he never even went to deuce in any of his other seven service games, and broke the No. 8-ranked Ruud a total of five times to ease to the 18th Top 10 win of his career.

He’ll have to do double duty on Friday now, as he’ll face Great Britain’s Jack Draper in a third-round clash in the night session.

If the Canadian can win that one, he’ll make it a double milestone day—he’ll move into the 10th Masters 1000 quarterfinal of his career.