(Reuters) – Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime moved a step closer to his maiden ATP title after a 6-1 6-2 win over Corentin Moutet in the Murray River Open semi-finals in Melbourne on Saturday.
Third seed Auger-Aliassime, who had saved a match point against Egor Gerasimov in the last 16 of the Australian Open warm-up event, needed just an hour to see off the 21-year-old Frenchman thanks to a dominant serving display.
The 20-year-old Canadian fired eight aces and did not face a single break point en route to a third straight win against Moutet.
Auger-Aliassime, who has lost each of his six finals on the men’s ATP Tour, faces eighth seed Dan Evans in Sunday’s decider after the Briton beat Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-2 6-2.
“I’m well aware of my record in finals, but I think tomorrow is another match,” Auger-Aliassime said. “I had very difficult matchups in my last finals in terms of rankings. This time it’s different, but it doesn’t mean that it gets any easier.”
After being knocked out of the Australian Open in the first round last year, Auger-Aliassime faces German Cedrik-Marcel Stebe in the opening round of the year’s first Grand Slam and he is confident his game is in good shape.
“I’m being more and more mature with how I play. My feeling is that I’m able to bring more consistency through the matches,” he said. “I do feel like I’m a better player than I was 12 months ago, so we’ll see.”
(Reporting by Arvind Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
