Felix Auger-Aliassime: “I know which player I want to be and which player I already am”
Felix Auger-Aliassime hasn’t been able to play an official tournament on grass before Wimbledon due to a knee injury, but he still believes he could do well there.
Felix Auger-Aliassime, Indian Wells 2023 – © AI / Reuters / Panoramic
It has not been a walk in the park this year so far for Felix Auger-Aliassime, but the Canadian’s ambition is not deterred by the various setbacks he suffered. It’s been mostly due to a left knee that has been regularly refusing to heal fast enough since the US Tour in March.
“FAA” lost in the first round of singles both in Madrid and Rome, played the quarter-finals in Spain though, but then had to withdraw from Lyon after winning one match and crashed out of Roland-Garros in the first round after being sick all night.
Despite wanting to play on grass in Halle and Mallorca, the Canadian did nothing of that. He just came to play the Boodles exhibition a few days before Wimbledon. “I went to Halle with the intention of playing but in the days leading to the event I didn’t feel ready enough, didn’t feel competitive enough. My knee was still hurting and so I had issues to serve, so I decided to withdraw so I’d have more time to train.”
“That was not the original plan but it’s a good experience so young in my career to see how it’s going to go, and it probably won’t be the last time I go to Wimbledon without playing any events before because I would have to rest my body. Novak has been doing it a lot.”
“It’s now fully healed” – Auger-Aliassime
There are no signs of worry or frustration when you talk to him about his current situation. As often, Auger-Aliassime has his head firmly set on his shoulders and he’s not one to start doubting everything after a rough patch.
“This week I’ve felt better and better. I’ve played some practice matches, and trained because at the end of the day, with the years passing, I feel more and more that the most important is that I’m healthy because then the game comes back pretty quickly. I’ve been able to train every day so if I can get through the early rounds, I feel my level is there to be as competitive as the other years.”
The main thing is that he is seeing the end of that injury tunnel. “My left knee has been bothering my serve and the movements on the left side. It’s something related to the tendon above my knee, and the recovery is not as precise as a fracture in a bone for example. It’s now fully healed but there’s some inflammation left and so sometimes if I play a lot of matches or practices it will come back, so with the team, we are really trying to manage it the best we can.”
“Managing the load but also putting the right load to get my muscles around it better which is something I was lacking a little bit. It’s not perfect science and even the doctors don’t know exactly how long until I won’t have any pain anymore. But as of today, I feel ready and good to go to start the tournament.”
I never tell myself that I have to lower my ambitions
Felix Auger-Aliassime
Yet one might wonder about his mindset about how this season has been going. Clearly, it’s not been living up to his expectations: after all, the way he finished last year had turned him into a contender for all the titles. And Auger-Aliassime has never hidden the fact that he wanted to win very big. So it must be difficult to make peace with what’s been happening so far, no? Apparently, no.
“The belief doesn’t change”, he explains. “I still have that ambition and that belief that I have all it takes to win a tournament like Wimbledon. I’ve been closer in the past for sure but those physical issues didn’t help me to reach the level I was hoping for. But at practice or even during the matches I lost, I still felt competitive. I know which player I want to be and which player I already am. I never tell myself that I have to lower my ambitions, even for the rest of the season. I still have great ambitions and hopes for this year.”
Auger-Aliassime isn’t anymore in the era of his career that demands him to prove how good he is. He’s done that. So it brings him the necessary peace to deal with this 2023 season: he’s not starting from scratch, he has a strong foundation.
“In the past, I was able to prove things to myself and to others about what I could do on a tennis court. Now, I want to get back to the highest level, to get back to my former ranking (No.6), and then obviously to go even higher. I’m not upset or impatient about all of this: I’ve accepted the situation, and I know that these types of years can happen in a career. I’m always trying to keep a competitive and positive mindset and I try to mainly think about when the wins are going to come back.”
With the power of his game and the quality of his serve, it is obvious that Wimbledon could fit him like a glove. Auger-Aliassime knows it but he also knows that it’s been a very private garden in the last decade. “Of course, Wimbledon is surely one of the Grand Slam tournaments I hope to be able to win. But for our generation, it’s been a tough one as for the past twelve or ten years it’s only been Federer, Djokovic, Murray, and Nadal. But at some point, the young players are going to win that tournament too. So for sure, for my career, it’s a tournament I could see myself winning due to my game.” It’s going to take way more than a few rough months to derail that man.
