17-year-old Justin Engel loses his first quarterfinal on tour against former top ten player Félix Auger-Aliassime.
A kiss goodbye: Germany’s tennis youngster Justin Engel has missed out on continuing his surprise run at the ATP grass court tournament in Stuttgart. The 17-year-old lost his quarterfinal match against former world number six Félix Auger-Aliassime 6-7 (3-7), 3-6. In the last four, the fourth-seeded Canadian will face either Marton Fucsovics (Hungary) or Taylor Fritz (USA/No. 2).
After Engel reached the quarterfinals on tour for the first time the day before with a two-set victory over Alex Michelsen (USA) and became the youngest quarterfinalist on grass since Boris Becker in 1985 at Wimbledon, he now faced a “big name” in Auger-Aliassime, as he himself admitted.
Auger-Allisaime too strong for Engel
At the start of the match in front of a well-filled crowd, Engel served two aces, but was initially unable to get his first serve through as he had against Michelsen. The youngster did not let this unsettle him, however, and regained his “old” serving strength during the first set, ultimately losing in a tiebreak in the Stuttgart heat. In the second set, Auger-Aliassime ended the match with his 18th ace (Engel: seven) after 1 hour and 38 minutes, thus ending the tournament for the young Engel.
The protégé of former top 20 player Philipp Kohlschreiber has come closer to his goal with his performance at the Weissenhof: Engel, ranked 281 in the official ATP rankings, wants to break into the top 200 and qualify for the US Open. To do so, he would probably have to finish among the top 220. With his performance in Stuttgart, he is just behind that mark according to the ATP live rankings.
In the afternoon, top seed Alexander Zverev, who is preparing for Wimbledon (starting June 30) in Stuttgart and Halle/Westphalia and had some trouble with France’s Corentin Moutet in his first match, will face Brandon Nakashima (USA/No. 6). He is the last remaining German in the grass court tournament at the Weissenhof.
