Untouchable, unstoppable, invincible. For three weeks, Félix Auger-Aliassime has been shaking the tennis world, and the Quebecer proved once again on Sunday that he is the strong man of this end of the season by winning a third title in a row.
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After the ATP 250 trophies of Florence and Antwerp, the ninth world grabbed the ATP 500 title in Basel at the expense of the young Dane Holger Rune, a rising star on the circuit, whom he dominated 6-3 and 7- 5 in the ultimate match, in 1 hour 40 minutes of play.
“It was a dream week for me, a fantastic week, underlined the champion during the trophy presentation. When I arrived here, I didn’t really know what to expect. I was playing well, but it’s difficult to maintain this level. »
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How tired?
Difficult, especially when the fatigue from all these matches accumulates and the rivals become more and more motivated to defeat the monster.
Rune, 25th in the world at 19, tried hard. Of all this Swiss week, the Dane is the one who gave the third seed the most trouble. Because apart from this tiebreaker lost in the first set of the first match, against local favorite Marc-Andrea Huesler, Félix had crushed everything in his path for four games.
Including the first player in the world, the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, whom Auger-Aliassime dominated in the semi-finals on Saturday.
Taking advantage of some rare largesse from Félix on his first serve (he posted a 78% win percentage on this one throughout the game), Rune got three break points in the second set.
But as usual for three weeks, the ninth in the world did not shake. He erased the first of a service winner on the center line.
To forget the other two, he slammed an ace each time, remaining perfect in service throughout the tournament (51 in 51).
In total, he hit 11 aces in this match. But that’s not the only point that impresses the 22-year-old athlete in October. There is also this facility to dominate the long rallies and to raise his game a notch in crucial moments.
Like in this 12th game of the second set, when he broke the Dane’s serve on his fourth attempt. Auger-Aliassime would then get three match points on his serve, concretizing the last.
A warrior’s cry
Exalted by this third title in a row, Félix dropped on the ground, before getting up and giving a warrior’s cry. “A real reaction, which came to me spontaneously,” he explained.
Because three titles in a row is not nothing. This season, the Spaniard Rafael Nadal and the Serbian Novak Djokovic, two of the most dominant players of the last decades, have also achieved the feat.
And four titles in one season – Auger-Aliassime opened his record at the ATP 500 in Rotterdam in February – that’s very good by current standards. Only Alcaraz, with five, did better this year. Nadal, Djokovic and Andrey Rublev also lifted four trophies at the end of their arms in 2022.
On Federer’s land
Thanks to this victory, Félix is one step closer to the ATP Finals, which will be played in Turin in mid-November. He will try to ensure his qualification this week, at the Masters 1000 in Paris (see other text).
“I want to thank you for your support,” the winner humbly told the Swiss crowd. You pushed me to surpass myself, to dig deep inside myself in order to keep fighting. »
A crowd that adopted him throughout his matches, having long encouraged Roger Federer, the immense local star, who won 10 top honors in the city where he was born.
“It’s funny, I just thought of him [dimanche] morning, mentioned Felix. I thought it would be cool to win here, where he has triumphed 10 times, although I’m obviously far from this record. »
Close to the goal
Felix is about to qualify for the ATP Finals
Photo: AFP
Félix Auger-Aliassime moved closer to his goal of making the ATP Finals with his win on Sunday in Basel, Switzerland.
If Félix Auger-Aliassime is stringing together tournaments at the end of the season, it is because he is very close to achieving one of the objectives he had set for this 2022 campaign: qualifying for the final of the ATP, which will bring together in Turin, from November 13, the eight best players of the year.
And the Quebecer was playing big in Basel. A quick defeat, combined with good performances from his closest pursuers, the American Taylor Fritz and the Pole Hubert Hurkacz in Vienna (see table opposite), would have taken him away from his goal.
One rank jump
In the end, the opposite happened. By lifting the trophy in Switzerland on Sunday, the 22-year-old also climbed to sixth place in the “race”, a ranking that differs from the official ATP list, in which Félix will return to eighth place on Monday.
The “race” ranking takes into account the points accumulated by the players since the start of the season. That of the ATP compiles those obtained during the last 52 weeks.
Seventh in the standings for Turin at the start of last week, Félix jumped up a rank and will be the next to get his ticket.
Two places are still available for the prestigious tournament. Serbian Novak Djokovic, 10th, is already qualified due to his world ranking and his victory at Wimbledon. Andrey Rublev is the other player who is the closest to buying his plane ticket to Italy.
Another crucial week
But beware: Félix will still play big at the Masters 1000 in Paris on Tuesday. Fritz finds himself in the same portion of the table as the pride of L’Ancienne-Lorette.
Even if he is very, very close to the goal, a misstep from Auger-Aliassime in his first game, combined with a long week from the American or from Hurkacz, could postpone his first appearance at the tournament until next year. the end of the year.
By virtue of his seeded status in Paris, the Quebecer has a bye in the first round. In the second round, he will face the winner of the duel between the Kazakh Alexander Bublik, 38th in the world, whom he has already defeated in Basel, and the Swedish qualifier Mikael Ymer, 76th.
“It’s a long series of victories, but it’s not over,” said a confident Félix on Sunday. I hope to continue this momentum. »
THE LAST RIGHT TO TURIN
Carlos Alcaraz (ESP)* 6640 points
Rafael Nadal (ESP)* 5810 points
Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE)* 4990 points
Casper Ruud (NOR)* 4930 points
Daniel Medvedev* 4055 dots
Felix Auger-Aliassime (CAN) 3635 points
Andrey Rublev 3340 dots
Taylor Fritz (USA) 2910 points
Hubert Hurkacz (POL) 2860 points
Novak Djokovic (SRB)** 2720 points
Points as of Sunday
* Already qualified for the ATP Finals
** Already qualified thanks to his victory at Wimbledon and his presence in the world top 20
Source: ATP