Community & Current Events
Canadian ATP Tennis Player Profile: Félix Auger-Aliassime
Photo: Pascal Ratthe
Community & Current Events
Canadian ATP Tennis Player Profile: Félix Auger-Aliassime
Let's get to know, support and cheer on our Canadian tennis player:
Photo: Martin Sidorjak
Félix Auger-Aliassime, 22, was born in Montreal and started playing tennis at a young age before going on to train at the National Tennis Centre presented by Rogers. His career took off when he reached No. 2 in the world as a junior and won the 2016 US Open boys’ singles title at 15 years old.
His success instantly translated to the ATP Tour, where he quickly ascended the rankings. Auger-Aliassime achieved a career-high No. 6 ranking during the 2022 season, when he dominated with a career-long 16-match win streak while winning three consecutive titles at Florence, Antwerp and Basel.
Representing Team Canada presented by Sobeys, he was part of the team that reached the 2019 Davis Cup final. In 2022, he played a crucial role as they won the ATP Cup and he led Canada to its first-ever Davis Cup victory that November.
We had the opportunity to ask him a few questions:
CLQ: What are your top three personal accomplishments?
In terms of my top three accomplishments in my career so far, I would put winning the Davis Cup with Team Canada (number one). My career-high ranking in second position; I’m very proud of being sixth in the world and the third one would be when I won three titles in a row, which is a rare thing to do as a tennis player so that was also something that I’m proud of.
Photo: Mathieu Belanger
CLQ: What insights can you share about your hometown – particularly their support of you?
My hometown, the people of the province of Quebec in general, have always been very supportive, wishing me always the best, supporting me throughout my career since I was a kid, so you know, whenever I can win and make my hometown shine on the global stage, that’s always something that I’m very proud of. And I feel like it’s mutual between the people that follow me and me wanting to represent them the best, so I’m very proud of where I’m from and I think the people are proud as well that I try to represent them the best that I can everywhere in the world.
CLQ: What are your favourite hobbies outside of tennis and why?
I don’t have too many hobbies as tennis takes most of my time, but I would say that I’m very curious in many different things in life, so I get to travel and I’m very curious about knowing about the culture of different places, the food that they like, I like to experience trying different foods. But in general, I keep it very simple; I like to entertain myself with music, movies, nature, and things of that sort; so pretty simple.
CLQ: Do you have any other passions? If so, what are they?
I think another passion that I have is sharing and giving back in all its forms. I was raised by two teachers, in a way. My dad’s a tennis coach and my mom’s a teacher in school. I love the idea of sharing your knowledge, sharing your wealth in whatever form it is, and I know it’s maybe odd to call it a passion but it’s something that I think about often. Throughout my career and after my career I want to share the experiences I’ve had and I want to maybe educate people that could use that experience that I’ve been through. So, I think this is something that I do think about a lot and hopefully I can do later in my career.
Photo: Martin Sidorjak
CLQ: What has been your proudest moment (in or outside of tennis)?
I think my proudest moment comes back to the first question, in my top three. I think winning the Davis Cup was very meaningful because it’s not only a win for myself that’s significant but for everybody that was involved there. I had my current coach, ex-coaches, coaches that I’d had when I was just a kid, my dad, family, girlfriend, teammates, and friends. So, it was a win that was shared with many people, many important people that I’ve had so far in my life. It was very meaningful to share this moment with all of them and I was very proud that I was able to win the last match and get us over the line and win the whole thing.
(Left to right) Frank Dancevic, Alexis Galarneau, Vasek Pospisil, Félix Auger-Aliassime, Denis Shapovalov, Gabriel Diallo. | Photo: Martin Sidorjak
CLQ: Growing up, why did you choose tennis?
I’m not sure exactly why I chose tennis. It kind of feels like tennis chose me and it’s always been a part of my life. I can’t really remember a time when tennis wasn’t. It comes back to the tender age of three or four years old when I was just learning to almost walk properly, and my dad was already teaching me things about tennis, and I was already at the tennis courts. My love for tennis goes way back and I think tennis will always be important in my life.
CLQ: What advice would you give to a young athlete picking up the sport?
I think you have to love the process of learning. Of course, to be competitive and to love winning is one thing but I think to love the process of learning and improving and working on things is so important. I think that when you understand that the love of improving gets you to where you want to be it makes a whole difference. For me, that was really a change in my life when I started appreciating the process of training hard and working and sometimes pushing myself to the limit and that makes a huge difference. So, I think the earlier you learn to do that, maybe the better it is.
CLQ: What are your thoughts going into the National Bank Open?
My thoughts going into the National Bank Open every year, for the last few years now, is that - after the big tournaments we have in our sport: the Grand Slams, the Olympics, or the ATP Finals – the tournament in Canada is always an important one in the calendar for me. It’s always one that I hope to play well in. I want to come in healthy and playing well. So again, without putting extra pressure on myself - that wouldn’t be useful - I have, I think, extra motivation every year to play well in Canada.
It would be a dream to win in Canada, in places that I grew up in, that I have many memories over the years playing, either in Montreal or Toronto. Of course Montreal is special because I’m from there but winning in Toronto this year would also mean a lot so I hope I can represent well and I hope I can play a good tournament in front of the home fans.
🎾 Follow Félix on Instagram as he takes the court for the National Bank Open.
Interested in attending the National Bank Open? Click HERE
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