ROME — Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime lost 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-4 to No. 13 seed Borna Coric of Croatia on Monday in the opening round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.
It was a bit of revenge for Coric, who lost to the 18-year-old from Montreal earlier this year in a Miami Open quarterfinal, also an ATP Tour Masters 1000 event.
Auger-Aliassime hasn’t been able to duplicate his success from the South American clay-court swing on the same surface in Europe in advance of the French Open. The 30th-ranked Auger-Aliassime is now 3-4 since his run to the semis on the hard-courts of Miami.
The Canadian had just one break-point opportunity against Coric, who had 10 of his own on Auger-Aliassime’s serve.
Coric won 81 per cent of first-serve points, 13 percentage points higher than Auger-Aliassime.
Auger-Aliassime is scheduled to play a French Open tuneup event in Lyon, France next week.
Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., was scheduled to face Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain in another first-round match in Rome later Monday. The winner will meet No. 1 seed Novak Djokovic in the second round.