Tsitsipas, Auger-Aliassime pull double duty to set Queen's Club clash

Two members of The 21 & Under Club will square off in the quarterfinals of the ATP 500 grass-court event in London's Queen's Club, after Stefanos Tsitsipas and Felix Auger-Aliassime successfully completed double duty on Thursday.

The 18-year-old Auger-Aliassime won the pair’s first head-to-head meeting earlier this season at Indian Wells, and has shown that his game is suited for all surfaces, reaching the Stuttgart final last week in his ATP grass debut. Tsitsipas, 20, has put his opening-round defeat in s-Hertogenbosch behind him, and is wearing the tag of top seed well thus far at Queen's Club.

Tsitsipas first finished off Kyle Edmund in a match carried over from Wednesday, before battling past Jeremy Chardy, 4-6, 7-6 (0), 7-6 (4). Chardy served for the match at 5-4 in the second set, but couldn’t close the door. The two then engaged in a 28-point game to start the third set, a strong indicator that the contest would go down to the wire. It was Tsitipas who ultimately held his nerve in the decisive tiebreaker—after also failing to serve out the battle at 5-4.

Auger-Aliassime posted two quality victories to then set up the showdown with Tsitsipas. He first eliminated former event champion Grigor Dimitrov, 6-4, 6-4. A tight encounter with Nick Kyrgios followed. Neither were able to make an impact on return, until the final game of the match. Kyrgios played a casual point at deuce,and Auger-Aliassime soon clinched the 6-7 (4), 7-6 (3), 7-5 victory with a backhand cross-court return winner past the charging Kyrgios.

For Kyrgios, it was another interesting day to say the least. He clashed with photographers, who reportedly clicked the shutter when he blew his nose. He scolded chair umpire James Keothavong and linespeople on their day’s work. And at one point said under his breath, “You were playing FIFA until 3am, what do you expect?”