Felix Auger-Aliassime admits he needs to raise his level at the ATP Finals as he has vowed to return to the practice and address what he felt didn’t work in his Turin opener. Auger-Aliassime, who is enjoying a career-high ranking of No 6 in the world, started his ATP Finals debut with a loss as Casper Ruud beat the Canadian 7-6 (4) 6-4.
After winning three titles and reaching the Paris Masters semifinal, Auger-Aliassime failed to get off to a good start to the ATP Finals. “I need to bounce back and play better. I’m not far from playing well, but there’s a few things I can do better.
I’ll try to use tomorrow to work on a few things, then see how it goes the next day. It wasn’t my way, but I’m ready for the next challenge,” Auger-Aliassime reflected.
Felix Auger-Aliassime: “I need to bounce back and play better.
I’m not far from playing well, but there’s a few things I can do better. I’ll try to use tomorrow to work on a few things, then see how it goes the next day. It wasn’t my way, but I’m ready for the next challenge” pic.twitter.com/59JWdf3eGt — Mario Boccardi (@marioboc17) November 13, 2022
Auger-Aliassime dealt with a cold in the days leading up to Turin
After losing to Ruud, Auger-Aliassime revealed he was hampered by a cold in the days leading up to the ATP Finals.
However, he underlined that it didn’t impact his performance versus Ruud. “In the fall you get sometimes a cold. But nothing bad. I had a few days to recover. It’s nothing that affected me today. I’ve been dealing with a little virus in the last few days, but nothing that bad, nothing that affected today,” Auger-Aliassime said.
Felix Auger-Aliassime about his illness: ” In the fall you get sometimes a cold. But nothing bad. I had a few days to recover. It’s nothing that affected me today. I’ve been dealing with a little virus in the last few days, but nothing that bad, nothing that affected today” pic.twitter.com/lCner55cGw — Mario Boccardi (@marioboc17) November 13, 2022
Auger-Aliassime, 22, was playing his first-ever ATP Finals match, while Ruud had a bit of an experience since he made the ATP Finals semifinal last year.
The first set was an incredibly tight contest as not a single break point was seen in the opener. In the tie-break. the two players were tied at 4-4 before Ruud won the next three points to win the first set. In the seventh game of the second set, the first break point of the match was finally seen as Ruud broke Auger-Aliassime for a 4-3 lead.
Ruud then held on to his serve the rest of the match to beat Auger-Aliassime in two sets. It remains to be seen if Auger-Aliassime can bounce back in his next match, in which he plays Rafael Nadal.
