Federer loses to Auger-Aliassime in Halle

Felix Auger-Aliassime enjoyed a landmark victory against 10-time champion Roger Federer at the Halle Open.

The 20-year-old, who is 19 years younger than his opponent, rallied from a set down to win 4-6 6-3 6-2 to book his place in the last eight of a tournament where Federer has been king so many times.

“It’s a great victory, it’s good for my confidence. It was already a great challenge for me to play a player like Roger, but to beat him, it’s a great thing,” Auger-Aliassime said on the ATP Tour website.

“It makes me really happy. But at the end, it’s the quarter-finals in two days.

“If it was the final, then I’d be really happy… it’s another step in the tournament, it’s a great match, so hopefully I can keep on going like that.”

In contrast Federer, who is making a comeback from knee surgery, was unhappy with his attitude in the final set.

“It was not a good attitude from my side, I was disappointed in the way I was feeling on court, the way things were going,” he said in his press conference.

“That you know I’m not getting better spells and all that stuff I just think the whole difficulty of the comeback got to me as well a little bit.

“How much I have to push on every point, try to make things happen and I realised it was not going to be my day, there was nothing I can do, I started to get really negative, you know, and this is not normally how I am.”

Elsewhere fourth seed Andrey Rublev made light work of Jordan Thompson, winning 6-4 6-4, while qualifier Marcos Giron downed home favourite Jan-Lennard Struff 6-7 (1) 6-3 6-4.

Fellow German Philipp Kohlschreiber did progress, though, winning 6-4 7-6 (4) against Frenchman Corentin Moutet.

Two-time champion Marin Cilic is back in the quarter-finals at the cinch Championships at Queen’s.

The Croatian, who last won the event in 2018, beat eighth seed Fabio Fognini 6-3 7-6 (4).

There will be an all-British tie in the last eight after wins for Cameron Norrie and Jack Draper.

Norrie reached a first Queen’s Club quarter-final after beating in-form Aslan Karatsev 7-5 6-2.

Teenager Draper, who stunned 23rd-ranked Jannik Sinner in round one for his first ATP Tour singles win, impressively backed that victory up with a 7-6 (5) 7-6 (0) success against Alexander Bublik.

Elsewhere, Alex De Minaur beat fellow Australian John Millman 6-1 6-3.