Auger-Aliassime surprised by Rune’s rise: “He exposed my weaknesses”

The Canadian admitted he had been outplayed by the in-form Dane

November 5, 2022

It was always going to take something special to end Felix Auger-Aliassime‘s winning streak of 16 matches – including three titles in three weeks – and Holger Rune found it at the Paris Masters on Saturday.

The 19-year-old Dane was aggressive throughout and never allowed the Canadian time to settle. It was a great performance and one that surprised Auger-Aliassime, who had beaten him in the Stockholm final just a week ago.

An incredible month.

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— ATP Tour (@atptour) November 5, 2022

“Well, I’m surprised, yes,” Auger-Aliassime said of Rune, who has climbed from No 103 at the start of the year to at least a career-high No 12 on Monday.

“I knew he had a lot of qualities. Well, we have Carlos (Alcaraz, beaten by Rune in the quarter-finals) who is a standout player, for instance. At his age I was in the top 100 as well at 18. We have a similar career.

“But I’m surprised, and I have to say hats off to him for his wonderful rise in the ranking. He has played very well throughout this season. He’s had also very tough moments, which is not normal for someone who is 18 years old. He managed to be in the final in Stockholm, in Basel. It’s very incredible at his age. He hasn’t been much on the tour. Hats off to him, because he’s exceptional.”

Auger-Aliassime: “He was playing so aggressively, without missing”

And on Saturday, he took control right from the start, dominating with his serve and returns, which pushed Auger-Aliassime back and took him out of his comfort zone.

“I have to give him a lot of credit. He kind of exposed weaknesses in my game,” he said. “He was playing so aggressively without missing. I haven’t seen or I haven’t played many players that were this aggressive and hitting that hard, that deep.

“It was just exposing the fact that I couldn’t manage to kind of establish my game plan on the court and feel good and play two, three good points in a row.

“I wouldn’t say my forehand let me down completely. Of course I did miss important ones or easier forehands, start of the second set as well getting broken there with two or three mistakes. So not particularly it let me down, but a few things in my game didn’t work because of how he was playing.”

Rune improvement makes 2023 even more interesting

Auger-Aliassime singled out how aggressive Rune was.

“Today he was very aggressive. He was playing very strongly on both sides. He’s serving much better. He served very well during the last weeks. But he’s serving much better. I think he improved from a physical point of view, as well,” he said.

“Before it was hard to have so many matches under his belt in a row. It means that he has improved physically, so it will be interesting to see next year how things will unroll.”