DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime was eliminated in the second round of the Dubai Tennis Championships with a 7-6 (4), 6-4 loss to Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego on Wednesday.

Sonego hit three winners in a tiebreaker to win an even first set that saw both players hold serve throughout.

The Italian scored the only break of the game to go up 4-3 in the second set. Auger-Aliassime had game point twice but failed to hold.

Sonego had two aces and served to love in the next game to take a 5-3 lead.

Auger-Aliassime held to cut the lead to 5-4, claiming the ninth game with an ace. But after the Canadian took the first point of game 10, Sonego served out for his first win in three meetings with Auger-Aliassime

It was Auger-Aliassime’s earliest exit at a tournament since the 22-year-old from Montreal, who entered the tournament ranked No. 9 in the world, lost his first match at a season-opening tournament in Adelaide, Australia.

He followed that with a run to the fourth round of the Australian Open, a quarterfinal appearance in Rotterdam, Netherlands and a semifinal berth in Doha, Qatar.

Sonego will face Germany’s Alexander Zverev in the quarterfinals.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 1, 2023.