Fired-Up Felix Bounces Norrie

Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime demonstrated his title credentials in Montreal Thursday, downing Cameron Norrie 6-3, 6-4 to reach the quarter-finals on home soil for the first time.

The 22-year-old brought the home crowd to their feet throughout his 72-minute victory as he blasted the ninth-seeded Brit off the court to improve to 5-1 in their ATP Head2Head series.

In a dominant display, Auger-Aliassime targeted Norrie’s forehand with his watertight groundstrokes, while he hit 15 aces and demonstrated great footwork, dancing around his backhand to paint the lines with his forehand.

The sixth seed, who lost to Norrie in the Los Cabos semi-finals last week, is making his fourth appearance at the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers and will next play Norway’s Casper Ruud as he looks to win his first ATP Masters 1000 crown.

The World No. 9 now holds a 34-18 record on the year and is 11-6 on hard courts, highlighted by the run to his maiden tour-level title in Rotterdam in February.

Norrie arrived in Montreal in form, having advanced to his fourth tour-level championship match of the season in Los Cabos.

The 26-year-old dispatched #NextGenATP American Brandon Nakashima and Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp in straight sets in his opening two matches in Canada, but was unable to match Auger-Aliassime’s aggressive hitting on Court Central.