Felix Auger-Aliassime returns to win column at Adelaide International

Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime snapped a three-match losing streak with an 6-3, 7-6 (0) win over Australian James Duckworth in the second round of the Adelaide International on Wednesday.

The second-seeded Auger-Aliassime, from Montreal, received a first-round bye at the ATP Tour 250 event before downing the 96th-ranked Duckworth.

Auger-Aliassime, ranked 22nd in the world, advances to the quarter-finals and will face Alex Bolt of Australia.

The 19-year-old Auger-Aliassime lost his past three matches at the ATP Cup team event after opening the 2020 season with a win over world No. 487 Michail Pervolarakis of Greece.

Auger-Aliassime is the top-ranked player in the Adelaide event, which serves as a tune up for next week’s Australian Open. Top seed Alex de Minaur of Australia was a late withdrawal.

Auger-Aliassime is gearing up for his main-draw debut at the Australian Open, the season’s first Grand Slam. The event starts Monday.

Meanwhile, former Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber sustained a lower back injury and retired from her Adelaide International match on Wednesday.

The former world No. 1 trailed 6-2, 2-0 in her match against Dayana Yastremska when she stopped playing. Kerber, who won the Australian Open in 2016 and also has Wimbledon and U.S. Open titles, had on-court medical help for the injury and then retired.

Kerber lost in the first round to Sam Stosur last week at the Brisbane International.

In other second-round women’s matches in Adelaide, Donna Vekic beat Maria Sakkari 2-6, 7-5, 6-1 and American Danielle Collins upset her seventh-seeded compatriot Sofia Kenin 6-3 6-1, to secure a quarter-final spot.

In a women’s doubles quarter-final, Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski and Croatia’s Darija Jurak beat Germany’s Tatjana Maria and Russia’s Anastasia Potapova 6-3, 6-7 (6), 10-6.

With files from The Associated Press.