Montreal’s Félix Auger-Aliassime fell to American qualifier Marcos Giron 6-1, 6-4 in the quarter-finals of the Japan Open on Friday.
Auger-Aliassime, the tournament’s eighth seed, struggled with his service game, landing only 54 per cent of his first serves and committing five double faults.
Giron, who reached the quarter-finals by upsetting the eighth-ranked Casper Ruud, capitalized on five of eight breakpoint opportunities.
Giron will face fellow American Ben Shelton in the semi-finals.
Despite the loss, Auger-Aliassime can draw some positives from his performance in Tokyo. The 23-year-old Canadian secured consecutive victories for the first time since March.
Auger-Aliassime, who has struggled this year with a 15-17 record in 32 singles matches, hadn’t won back-to-back matches since Indian Wells.
In other matches, Leylah Fernandez moved closer to her second straight WTA Tour title Friday with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Aliaksandra Sasnovich in quarter-final action at the Jiangxi Open.
The 22-year-old had four aces and broke her Belarusian opponent four times on seven chances as she increased her winning streak to eight matches.
Fernandez will face Czechia’s Katerina Siniakova in Saturday’s semi-finals. It’s a rematch of the final of last week’s Hong Kong Open, which Fernandez won in three sets to claim her first title in 19 months.
The Laval, Que., product had to play two matches Friday due to Thursday’s wet weather in Nanchang. She beat Chinese qualifier You Xiaodi 6-4, 6-1 to advance to the quarters.
A U.S. Open finalist in 2021, Fernandez has struggled with injuries and consistency in recent months, but has shown a return to form of late.
She entered the Jiangxi Open ranked 43rd in the world, up from 60th entering the Hong Kong Open.