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Andy Murray’s reward for his stunning five-set comeback in the first round of the United States Open was a showdown Thursday night with one of the most talented young players in the world. Felix Auger-Aliassime, a 20-year-old from Canada, may be the sport’s next big thing, a player with speed, power, explosiveness and the deft touch of a natural shotmaker.
Auger-Aliassime is also the No. 15 seed here. In a year that Murray is staging a comeback from hip replacement surgery, the tennis pride of Britain would not normally face someone as good as Auger-Aliassime until the second week of the tournament, but the coronavirus pandemic shook up the field.