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Flushing Meadows, New York – It is one thing to pull a blinder against one of the best players in the world.
It is another one to support it two days later, again against one of the best players in the world, and to play even better.
But the Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime did exactly that on Labor Day Monday on the US, where he struck no. 15 Seed Andrey Rublev in three sets to make his first Grand Slam Quarte final since the Australian Open 2022.
Read all about it Our Canadian press, here.
It was 8 1/2 years ago, when Auger-Aliassime was 16 and the Minaur was just 18, that the two met for the first time.
Auger-Aliassime was ranked No. 511; For him, the Minaur was on his way to the ATP tour, at no. 262.
They were the quarterfinals of an ATP Tour -seconder in Drummondville, Que., About an hour outside of Montreal in the middle of the winter of 2017.
Auger-Aliassime, who had won the title of the Boys’ Singles in the US Open the previous fall, had usually been full-time on the circuit and sharpen it in the Har-Tru Itfs entry in Florida. But he got a wildcard in this.
(Here is the draw)
Two years earlier, when he was only 14, he won three qualifying rounds during the same event to make the main drawing, in his first professional event. It set a few “youngest ever” markings. But in the end he could not play because he was injured in the last qualifying round.
When the 16-year-old two years later returned, he had a two junior big titles and about 20 pro events under his belt. And last week in Sherbrooke he had won a small ITF title in nearby Sherbrooke.
But after he made fellow countryman Peter Polansky in the second round (who was ranked at no. 124 at the time), he had a crisis of confidence that the Minaur played.
As he said on Monday, some competitions that you remember more than others. And this was one that happens to stand out in his memory.
This is what it looked like (We are flashing back to the 2017 Nike Duds that Roger Federer bore to win the Australian Open. But we wander).
“I even remember the thoughts I had during the game, tactically and everything. And I remember that my coach at the time, Guillaume Marx, he caught a moment that I doubted myself and then he said to me:” No, but you are better than he. You are better than him ”.
“It gave me a bit of a wake-up call. Because he (the minaur) played well at the time; he might have been a bit for me. And at the beginning of the game I was a bit impressed. And then guillaume to me I immediately thought:” Okay, maybe he is not wrong! Maybe I don’t have to win the game !! ” And it changed my approach and I got my confidence back. “
Auger-Aliassime won that and then lost to his friend Denis Shapovalov, who won the tournament.
This is how Auger-Aliassime looked like two weeks before that match at a $ 15k in Gatineau, Quebec.
And here is an epic throwback interview with him during that event.
(The next week he won his second pro title in Sherbrooke. The following week that memorable – for him – match against the Minaur).
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