Why Calm & Composure Are Key For Auger-Aliassime

After a breakout 2022 season, Felix Auger-Aliassime will be the first to admit this year has not been perfect. But the Canadian, who is the third seed this week at the Mubadala Citi DC Open, is using what some might view as a difficult campaign as a learning experience to grow.

Despite struggling with knee pain in recent months, the No. 12 player in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings has remained positive.

“You’ve never heard of an athlete that never had injuries, especially tennis players who play a lot. It’s a tough sport physically, so there’s for sure going to be injuries at some point in a career,” Auger-Aliassime said. “And looking back, I feel like I was fortunate enough that the last three or four years I never had a serious injury. And even now, this one this year wasn’t so serious, but just one that I was dealing with some pain for quite a long time, a few months. And I always try to take the positive out of it.”

Auger-Aliassime has not won consecutive matches since reaching the Indian Wells quarter-finals in March. His past two tournaments were at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, where he lost in the opening round as he struggled with his knee.

But the Canadian explained that dealing with the situation has allowed him to learn and help restructure to avoid future injuries.

“[It allowed me to] be really focussed on doing the right things and putting even more prevention in my work and becoming even more precise and professional and with how I do things,” the Netflix Break Point star said. “I would have loved to keep on playing and winning all the time. But I guess it was a good time to take a step back, restructure things to come back from it.”

It is a mature mindset for a player who is only 22, turning 23 on 8 August. Auger-Aliassime has gained plenty of experience since debuting on the ATP Challenger Tour aged 14.

“For me, things came quicker, or certain results or certain accomplishments came quicker than I even hoped or that I planned. So you take it. You take it when it comes,” Auger-Aliassime said. “And I guess, looking back, it was good for me that I went through certain experiences at a young age, becoming a professional at 18, and travelling the world and learning about my job, learning about how it is to deal with having a team of professionals around you, and how to manage my career in a better way. I was on the Player Council a couple years ago.

“So I feel like all these experiences, and I’m still [just turning] 23, I think it’s a great thing. It’s a great thing. And I think it’s going to be a big help over my career.”

Speaking about the lessons he has learned, Auger-Aliassime said: “I think it’s more in general just focussing on the things that I control. And I learned that I think at 17, 18. You want results, and you have certain expectations, but you quickly realise that you just don’t get what you want, just by really wanting it or working for it.

“You have to really trust that by doing the right things on a daily basis that eventually you will get to where you want to be. And [you need] to really be convinced, deep inside of you that you will get there and trust in training and trust the professionals around you.”

Last year Auger-Aliassime won the first four ATP Tour titles of his career, reached a career-high World No. 6 and qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals. It would have been nice to maintain his momentum, but Auger-Aliassime is not overreacting to a 13-11 start to 2023.

“[It is important] to stay very calm and composed,” Auger-Aliassime said. “To be proactive when things aren’t working well, but to never panic. And I think that was a big key for me to, to my consistency.”

The Canadian will try to get back on track this week in Washington, where he is happy to be competing for the third time.

“There’s a lot of diversity in the city. First of all, I go to restaurants and I see many different faces, which is always great to see. And I think that’s one thing that I love also when I come to the site, I’m practising and I’m playing matches,” Auger-Aliassime said. “I have people from various ages and young kids, families or older people, adults from many different backgrounds that also come from very different places. So it’s nice to see that kind of diversity.

“I think Washington does have that and then I love the layout of the city in a way, how green it is. You walk around, there’s parks. It’s very green. There’s not skyscrapers and tall buildings, so you don’t feel suffocated in a way. So yeah, I think those are things that I like about the city and I mean, it’s a tournament that’s been going on for many years. So people are used to having tennis, used to having a tournament here, so they come out in big numbers and it’s always great to see.”