French Open preview: Felix Auger-Aliassime. Will the Canadian jump on the winning bandwagon in Paris?

The turn of May and June is reserved in the tennis world for the French Open. The second Grand Slam of the season is hosted by Paris and the Musketeers’ Cup is traditionally contested by the world’s top players. Let’s take a look at the biggest favourites for the only clay grand slam on the circuit. This time it’s Felix Auger-Aliassime’s turn.

The first round of Roland Garros starts on Sunday, May 28. This time, the top event of the clay court part of the season has to do without Rafael Nadal, the record holder for the most titles at the Paris Grand Slam.

In previous previews we have already presented the ambitions of last year’s semi-finalist Alexander Zverev. There was also the world number seven, Russia’s Andrey Rublyov.

The freshest preview so far has focused on Daniil Medvedev, who has reached the quarterfinals here the furthest in six appearances and still ranks among the favourites. Today it’s the turn of Junior Davis Cup winner and current world No. 10 Felix Auger-Aliassime.

Felix Auger-Aliassime

The Canadian is more of a hard surface player, his main weapons are his serve, aggressive style of play and attacks from the forehand side. But personally, I don’t see why he can’t be successful on clay as well.

He knows he has to be more patient in matches on it. More often than on fast surfaces, the ball will return to his side of the court during an exchange. But he still sticks to his simple principle – it’s up to him.

The Canadian’s results at the French Open

He made his debut at the French Open in 2020. At the age of 20, he dropped out here in the first round, quite surprisingly. Three weeks earlier, he reached the eighth round of the US Open. Let’s recall that the calendar this season was affected by the covid.

A year later, already in the standard term, came a similar result. Auger-Aliassime, from the position of a big favourite, succumbed right at the beginning of the tournament to Italian Seppi 1: 3 on sets.

The Canadian did his best at Roland Garros last year. Then, as a 21-year-old, he not only fulfilled the role of favourite in the first round, but also won the two following matches. He reached his best at the only clay grand slam of the season by reaching the eight-finals. However, the eighth-final match was very valuable in itself.

Auger-Aliassime had a great battle with the local hegemon Rafael Nadal. He won the first and fourth sets and forced a deciding set. He held on until 3:4, when he lost his serve and soon lost the match. But he walked away with his head held high and earned applause from Nadal himself. He then lost only one set on his way to his 14th triumph.

This year’s form

The Montreal native has played a very modest number of matches on clay this year, just two. He competed in two Masters events. In Madrid, he was knocked out at the end of April by the Serbian Dusan Lajovic, who has been playing in great form this season.

He won the tournament in Banja Luka and the subsequent third round in Madrid equalled his best this year in Masters events. Auger-Aliassime lost to him in the tiebreak of the deciding set.

A tournament of similar value and the same result followed. In the very first match, the 22-year-old Canadian was stopped by Australia’s Popyrin. And again after a great fight. After more than three hours of play Auger-Aliassime lost 4::6, 6::4 and 5::7. He had quite big reserves on his serve. If it wasn’t for that, the match would have turned out differently.

The US Open semi-finalist has played only two competitive matches since the beginning of April. The beginning of this year has not been miraculous either. Czech sports fans may think of the match at the Australian Open, where the Canadian finished on Jiri Lehecka’s racket.

And that was in the eighth round. A year earlier he was a round away there and that goes for most of this year’s tournaments. Bottom line in 2023 Auger-Aliassime has a match record of 12::9, last year at this time he was on a score of 23::12.

In conclusion..

Canadian Auger-Aliassime will not be one of the favorites at Roland Garros 2023. This year he has not yet followed up on his results from last year.

From his position as a seeded tennis player, he should have room to get into shape thanks to a theoretically acceptable draw in the opening rounds. But if he successfully fulfils this scenario, he will inevitably meet tennis players in the later stages of the Grand Slam with whom he can only surprise.

Sources: ATP, Tennis World Usa