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MELBOURNE, Australia – The traveling roadshow that is tennis is so relentless, the so-called ‘off-season’ hardly exists these days.
And so what happened in late 2025 may well carry into 2026 – for better or for worse.
If a player ends his season with a throw, that throw can continue. Just look at Victoria Mboko in Adelaide last week. When a player is injured, there is barely enough time to get healthy again (too many examples to list here).
For world number 8 Félix Auger-Aliassime, the break was a chance to heal some bumps and bruises. But otherwise there wasn’t much time to get points and play practice matches at home in Monte Carlo.
“The goal coming to Sydney (for the United Cup) was to have two guaranteed matches. I would have liked to continue the adventure and play a third, fourth or fifth. But it was already good to have two – and to play doubles as well,” Auger-Aliassime said ahead of his Australian Open opener against the very capable Nuno Borges of Portugal on Monday.
Auger-Aliassime also fell ill in Sydney; he was certainly not the only one among the players who became ill. So he had no energy in the second singles match against Zizou Bergs of Belgium, and passed the decisive mixed doubles.
“But since I arrived in Melbourne, things have gone better and better. I’m spending a lot of time on the field and I’m feeling better and better physically, so all systems are working to start the season,” he said.
Auger-Aliassime said that even if nothing is ever perfect, he is happy with the state of the body at the start of the season. Because that wasn’t the case on some of the more recent trips Down Under.
In a conversation with a number of journalists before the tournament, Auger-Aliassime explained a number of topics.
“When I was younger, as a teenager, I trained for two or three months in Montreal. That hasn’t been the case for years. So little by little I came to see the off-season as just a period – three to four weeks – without tournaments or matches. Just like other times during the season when I rest a little bit,” he said.
Auger-Aliassime doesn’t view his progression as a player as a year-to-year affair; the years follow each other as the process continues rapidly. “I see where my game is and I’m trying to keep improving. But I don’t look at it as, ‘It’s the end of the year, and then I’ll start something new and rediscover my game,'” he said.
The work on improving the backhand – this has been a work in progress for a decade, as he aptly pointed out – on finishing points at the net more often, and on precision with his serve and forehand – never stops. These improvements really stood out at the end of 2025; that’s one of the reasons he was able to get back to the top of the game.
Auger-Aliassime’s ranking fell from No. 5 to No. 7 last week as he did not return to Adelaide to defend the title he won at the start of the 2025 season.
But the new campaign has different priorities. A year ago it was all about getting his ranking back up; he was barely in the top 30 when the season started. And that meant tougher draws at the major tournaments.
So Auger-Aliassime played more ATP 250 events.
“It worked quite well as I won Adelaide and Montpellier at the beginning of the year and Brussels at the end. But if you look at it, yes, it might have cost me previous losses at Grand Slams, for example playing in Mallorca before Wimbledon and in Hamburg before Roland Garros,” he said. “But that’s the gamble we took to move back up the rankings.
“Now that I have that, the stakes are very different. The goal is to be able to prepare well and have a good tournament here,” he added.
Auger-Aliassime said the management of a Grand Slam tournament is a constant evolution.
When you first arrive as a teenager, you don’t really know much about how to manage even the first round matches – let alone the extra best-of-five-sets element.
“And as you get further into the tournament, that second week feels REALLY long. And you’re tired. But since about 2021-2022 – the first time I was in a semifinal or quarterfinal – my goal has been to get myself in that position every time.”
“And then you’re playing against the best players in the world. And so whoever wins their last three matches wins (the tournament). But you have to try to put yourself in that position.”
A year ago, after that great week in Adelaide, Auger-Aliassime lost in Melbourne in the second round to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in five sets.
But before that, he made it to the quarterfinals in 2022, the fourth round in 2021 and 2023, and the third round in 2024. So even though it’s a place he never felt comfortable in when he came here as a junior, he’s embraced it in the pros.
And the lack of points to defend this year is even more of an incentive.
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