Felix Auger-Aliassime has had a very complicated season from which he will have to learn a lot if he wants to reverse the situation in 2024. He is clear that his goal will be to recover his best level and, from there, fight for the big titles. Do you think that Alcaraz, Sinner or Rune have removed you from the stage?
The end of the season has arrived and Happy Auger-Also He is already focusing on his goals for next year. In 2024 he will wipe the slate clean, but keeping in mind what he needs to do better to return to his rightful place. Thus, he will seek to understand the reasons for his fall in the ranking and the loss of confidence in too many tournaments: “The reality is that I was sixth at the beginning of the season and I am currently 29th. I have to accept it as a tennis player and know the reasons. It’s not to make excuses but to understand what happened, what I can do to get back to my best level and go even further. Because it’s not about finishing sixth again or playing half of a Grand Slam again like I did at the 2021 US Open, I want to go even further”, he confessed to Eurosport.
And Felix suffered knee problems in the middle of the year, among other injuries, which prevented him from competing at 100%. From then on, this loss of confidence increased. “On the American tour my health improved, I started playing quality matches again, but neither the confidence nor the tennis level were there. It took a few months until I found myself in a position to win at the level I did last year, especially in Basel. It has taken longer than expected and I have to see with my team how to get back to my level faster, because there will be injuries, although I hope as few as possible. I hope it continues to be a parenthesis in my career. This is my challenge”.
Despite everything, the Canadian is happy with his technical team and hopes that Toni Nadal accompany him in more tournaments for next season, after seeing him so little on his bench: “2023 has been complicated by injuries and uncertainty. In September I was training in Montreal and I wasn’t sure I would finish the season. It was difficult to commit Toni to come to certain tournaments, so he did not accompany me for a certain period. But we continue and will even repeat what we did in 2021 and 2022: the objective is for his presence to be more recurring, for him to come a little more often. With Frédéric everything is still fine. At the moment I love how my team works.”
And what place does he occupy among the successful crop of young people on the circuit like Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner o Holger Rune? Auger-Aliassime is clear that everyone has their own times and that being faster in achieving something does not guarantee you anything in the future, just like taking a little longer. “I don’t feel like I’ve missed the train. I managed to do things before Sinner, he achieved others before me. He had a very good year, especially starting in Beijing, a bit like me last year. I have always had rivals and adversities. I’m focused on what I have to do and I still have the belief that I can compete with all these players”, he confessed.
His ambition in a Grand Slam
“I am often asked for specific goals, but even as a team we never talk about them like that at the end of the year. Rather, we ask ourselves what we should do to be better or to win a Grand Slam.. We are really focused on the things we need to do every day to improve, for us that is the main thing. But my ambitions have always been the same since I was a teenager and a young player on the tour: to go all the way in a Grand Slam. It’s about winning. Will I make it next year? We’ll see, but in any case I will give myself every possible opportunity. I have the conviction and the belief that I can do it”, he stated.
2023-12-19 12:08:55
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