Felix Auger-Aliassime: Giant-Slayer

Felix Auger-Aliassime has been a fixture in the upper echelon of the sport for a few years now, breaking into the Top 20 as a teenager in 2019, reaching his first Grand Slam semifinal at the US Open last summer, and debuting in the Top 10 last fall.

But this year there’s been a new, even more impressive pattern developing for the Canadian: he’s become one of the biggest giant-slayers on the tour.

And it’s reached a peak over the last 11 days. Two Fridays ago he defeated Carlos Alcaraz in Davis Cup play, in the Spaniard’s first match since winning the US Open and rising to No. 1, and this past Sunday he took out reigning Wimbledon champion (and 21-time Grand Slam champion) Novak Djokovic at the Laver Cup.

Auger-Aliassime’s 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-2 win over Alcaraz on indoor hard courts in Valencia, Spain two weeks ago was the biggest win of his career—his first over a No. 1—and he had to serve up a storm to do it, dropping 16 aces (to just one double fault) and saving all seven break points he faced to prevail after two hours and 49 minutes.

“It’s a big win for me and for the team, because Carlos is the new No. 1, of course,” the Montreal native told DavisCup.com. “But he made a big effort, so we have to pay him respect for flying across the Atlantic and coming here to play.”

Though Djokovic had been struggling with a wrist injury at the Laver Cup, Auger-Aliassime’s 6-3, 7-6 (3) victory over the ATP legend was still huge—he closed out one of the greatest players the game has ever seen, and it put Team World ahead of Team Europe, 10-8, and just one win away from their first Laver Cup title (which was then clinched by Frances Tiafoe's victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas).

“It’s been one of my best performances in my career so far,” Auger-Aliassime said after his victory over Djokovic. “I’ve been close a few times in recent times against these great champions, so it feels great to get a win like this.”

Until his victory over Alcaraz, Auger-Aliassime’s best win by ranking also came this year, and coincidentally (or not?) in a team event—he defeated then-No. 3 Alexander Zverev at the ATP Cup, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, a massive win at the time given the German went into that one having won 34 of his last 38 matches, a stretch that dated back to capturing the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics the summer before.

Auger-Aliassime’s growing belief against top players nearly changed the course of history twice at the Grand Slams this year, too: he had a match point against Daniil Medvedev in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open before falling in five sets, 6-7 (4), 3-6, 7-6 (2), 7-5, 6-4, with the Russian going on to very nearly beat Rafael Nadal for the title; and he was also the only player to push Nadal to five sets at Roland Garros, falling to the eventual champion in the fourth round, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.

After the razor-thin loss to Medvedev in Melbourne, an optimistic Auger-Aliassime sounded like someone who knew he would slay some giants this year.

“It’s unfortunate I couldn’t win, but it was a good match. I showed good things,” he said. “I’m going to leave Australia with my head held high, and I’m going to go into the rest of the season knowing that I can play well against the best players in the world.”