If there can be repayment in the defeat, Felix Auger-Aliassime thought it was Friday evening in Flushing Meadows.
Closing a career drive to the semi-final of the US Open, including victories on the third seed Alexander Zverev, 15th seed Andrey Rublev and eighth seed Alex de Minauraur, the 25-year-old Canadian gave title defender Jannik Sinner everything he could meet for large parts of their four-final semi-final.
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In order to push the world no. 1 to 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 (after five break opportunities to have risen an early break in the third set) less than a month after a 6-0, 6-2 outburst for Sinner in De Cincinnati, Auger-Aliassime has a lot of reason to be optimistic for the rest of the season.
“I played much better. I served much better,” he said about his rematch defending US Open Champion. “It was weird. We had not played in Cincinnati for years … and just the way he returned, how quickly he played, it just caught me a bit overwhelmed.
“I went down quickly. So it influenced my game. But tonight I knew something to expect. He still had a good start, but I was much more convinced that as the game continued, I would find a good level and be competitive.”
The sevenfold ATP Tour Titlist showed resilience after dropping the first set, only gave one point to serving in a spectacular second set. He fitted the power of Sinner from the base line and showed Flair and conviction in the forecourt and won 22 of 31 points on the net. If he had converted more than one of the 10 break chances, the story could have been very different.
Asked to rate his run at Flushing Meadows, said Auger-Aliassime: “Well, well [I was pleased] With many things … such as the way I serve, the way I hit the forehand, the way I move over the field, the backhand too. There are many things.
“But moreover it is just the conviction, the mentality, the conviction in myself that I need what is needed to win these kinds of matches. Even in heavy games, just like the quarterfinals, there were probably times when I played my worst, so to speak. It was still good, but my worst in the tournament.
“But I still believed that my time will come and I will play at a good level again. I think that kind of competitions are gratifying for me. Yes, I think the mentality is something I worked on and that was good this week.”
Auger-Aliassime increases eight places during the tournament to the 10th position in the PIF ATP Live race to Turin and hopes to qualify for the Nitto ATP final of November for the second time. But he offered measured comments when he was asked if he had the feeling that he could stand up as a real rival for Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.
“Future will learn it,” he said. “I don’t want to make too many predictions. Tonight I just want to take the time to soak in the tournament and everything that was good.
“You clearly build your future with what is good at you, and then you try to improve a little step by step. So I just try to take that.
“But to say how close to my level is, we fought there. We had some good points. I was occasionally toe, some sets dominated. Of course I feel competitive, but the future will tell how close I am.”
The attention of the Canadian now goes to his wedding to Nina Ghaibi in Marrakesh, Morocco later this month.
Asked if he was mounted for his wedding suit, he joked: “No, I was on the field, man. You expect that I was on the phone call, such as, immediately after the loss and sorting out. No, I’ll sort it out tomorrow.”
Auger-Aliassime also said that he still had to decide whether he would play Davis Cup, which is only a few days before the wedding.
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