Blog Murciego: The ‘metamorphosis’ of Aliassime

But wasn’t this the one who lost the finals? If you too have been asking yourself this question in recent weeks, welcome to the most anticipated article of all. Yes, I was the one who put the ‘end-loser’ label on it, but not with bad intentions. In fact, I wrote enough there, and quite clearly, that it was only a matter of time before Félix Auger-Aliassime began to put glasses in his display case. But of course, when you lose the first eight finals of your career, I’m sorry but there is no way to get rid of the nickname. Fortunately, nothing is forever. The boy who lost finals now wins them, he has three in a row for a total of four in his career. The balance is still negative (4-9), but the sensations are very different, and no one dares to point a finger at him every time he steps on a last round. What a metamorphosis! Many readers will think. Yes in the numbers, yes in his mind, but his tennis was and still is the same scandal as always. Let’s not call revolution what is simply evolution.

When in doubt, titles. There is no better remedy, proven remains. Florence, Antwerp and Baselor what is the same, 13 consecutive victories. Three titles in fourteen days for an Aliassime that was uninterruptedly beating Otte, Nakashima, Musetti, Wolf, Guinard, Evans, Gasquet, Korda, Huesler, Kecmanovic, Bublik, Alcaraz and Rune. Okay, among all these names there is only one top 20, but he is the current number 1 in the world, whom he has defeated in all their matches (3-0). It turns out that the Canadian has achieved something much more important than outperforming those above him in the rankings, as he is now also able to not fail against those below him. That is the key to the best, to fall only when you have to fall, giving surprises from time to time. Showing you solid for more and more weeks of the calendar, is the famous consistency that takes you to the top 10, a ladder that Felix has not stopped climbing in recent tournaments. Right now he is already in eighth place in the world, although don’t be surprised if he comes out of Paris among the top five and has a ticket in his mouth for the Masters.

And because? Why now and not January? Why now and not in 2021? Very easy: because Aliassime turned 22 last August. No matter how many finals he has lost, any prize that comes to him will continue to be early, all his conquests should be news and any success he achieves will do so sooner than 90% of his generation peers. The problem is that people don’t have time, neither for ourselves nor for the person in front of us. With this guy we took it for granted that he would end up being a world star, but seeing him lose finals in the first pages of the book made us wonder. It was not a common case: neither in the good in the bad. Only after much thought did we understand that it was much better to lose finals than not play them, which made us keep our most critical profile and let time put things in their place. Today Félix has accumulated a total of thirteen finals in his career –played on all possible surfaces–, having won four of the last five, two of them in ATP 500 events. Of course he still has rivals with better records, but do we look at them? in how many go chasing your license plate? Beyond the numbers, now tell me how many show the respect, work and humility of this boy. And if he is on top now he also wins on Sundays, he turns off and let’s go.

It has been an amazing week. Once again in a final, without my service being broken in the entire tournament”, he valued after his victory in Basel. “It’s been a long year, an incredible long winning streak, and it’s not over yet. I hope to be able to move on, right now I feel within me all the good feelings that come with winning a tournament. It’s incredible, I’ve been playing well, but it’s always hard to expect something like that. Sometimes, when I win, I don’t show my emotions too much, but at the moment of victory everything has come out, I have felt a great relief”, confessed the Canadian exultantly, acknowledging that he still feels that pressure, almost obligation, the moment he has to face an individual final. Fortunately, this will accompany him throughout his life, since he still has a long list of endings ahead of him to celebrate.

It’s the usual story, where it never matters too much how it starts. Felix has confirmed that he not only has the talent to live with the best, but also to fight with them, to win his titles. With the usual humility, an extra dose of experience and an invincible player dynamic, the Canadian lands in the last stretch of the season with the racket lit up. Paris-Bercy and the Nitto ATP Finals They will be his last stops, where many already see him as a great candidate to give the bell. Do you know that all of his titles were won indoors? Do you know under what conditions these last two events are played? We do not want to get excited, nor do we want to make bets, what we do want to make clear is that here we have a man who in 2023 will be ready to fight for everything [Alcaraz, toma nota]. Regarding metamorphosis, forget about the term, it hasn’t been that bad. That ball that used to go to the corridor, now falls the line. This is how something so basic can change a tennis player completely.