Auger-Aliassime gains valuable experience
Félix Auger-Aliassime has made a giant leap into the top ranks of professional tennis and one thing he has learned is “it’s not easy.”
“It’s all new to me, dealing with injuries and having to play these high-level matches against players in the top 100, top 150,” Auger-Aliassime, 17, said Thursday in a conference call from Florida, where he’s preparing for the Miami Open, one of the top events on the ATP Tour below the Grand Slams.
“The big difference is that it doesn’t come easy. A lot of matches are fought until the end,” said the 17-year-old Montrealer. “Sometimes you get a bit lucky and it goes on to your side and sometimes it doesn’t.”
Injuries forced Auger-Aliassime to miss a planned trip to Australia in January, but he is healthy and made his ATP Tour debut last month in Rotterdam, Netherlands, where he received a wild-card. He lost in the first round there and also lost in the first round of another ATP Tour event in Marseille, France.
He noted a player in his position has a tougher time than Roger Federer, the veteran who has taken Auger-Aliassime under his wing and trains with the youngster.
“When you’re Roger, you have all this experience, all these matches behind you,” Auger-Aliassime said. “You deal easily with some matches. You go through a part of the draw easily but, at my level, I have to fight for every match, earn every point.”
Auger-Aliassime achieved a breakthrough last week. After winning two qualifying matches, he advanced to the main draw of the event in Indian Wells, Calif. He upset fellow Canadian Vasek Pospisil before losing to Canada’s No. 1 player, Milos Raonic, in the second round. With the win over Pospisil, he became the first player born in 2000 to win a match in a Masters 1000 event.
While the ATP events are providing him with experience, they aren’t helping his ranking. The losses at Rotterdam and Marseille didn’t give him any points and the 45 points he earned at Indian Wells weren’t enough to offset the 57 points — which he’ll lose when the new rankings are released Monday — he gained last year in Challenger events.
He’s at No. 169, but he’ll drop at least 12 spots.