With all eight fourth-round matches played on Tuesday at the BNP Paribas Open, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Tommy Paul might have saved the best for last. In one of two three-setters on the day — the other a thrilling win for Daniil Medvedev against Alexander Zverev — Auger-Aliassime fought off six match points to edge the American 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(6).
Next up for the eighth seed: a Thursday showdown with Carlos Alcaraz, who moved past Jack Draper via a second-set retirement earlier in the night.
With the stunning victory, Auger-Aliassime has now reached the quarter-finals at each of the past six ATP Masters 1000 events he's played, including his current run in Indian Wells. He has advanced to that stage at seven of the nine Masters 1000s on the calendar, with Monte Carlo and Shanghai the lone exceptions.
"I always stayed positive, I kept my hopes up, I kept thinking, 'OK, I'm not that far, I can come back,'" a relieved Auger-Aliassime said of his great escape against Paul. "At the end, when you're down 0/40 on your serve, you know that... 'OK if I win this first one, serve well, then again, then again, and we're back on even terms.'
"You just kind of take it one by one. It's very cliche to say but it still works; that's the proof. I'm really happy to get through. It's a crazy feeling."
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