NATIONAL BANK OPEN

July 30, 2025

Felix Auger-Aliassime

Press Conference

F. MAROZSAN/F. Auger-Aliassime

6-4, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Felix, tough luck. What do you think made the difference, you were up a break in both sets and then you kind of lost your way.

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME: Yeah, a mix of me and him. I mean, I don't play by myself out there. It's not like I'm hitting baskets with my coach. So you have an opponent, he tries to also win, and he did better than me dealing with the conditions. Obviously it was super windy.

I wasn't serving great. So, you know, we're talking about getting broken back, I mean, yeah, he just did a little bit better than I did at dealing with that, for sure.

Q. Denis spoke last night about struggling a little bit with the conditions on these courts, never feeling so comfortable. Do you have that feeling sometimes in Toronto as well, or do you think it suits your game?

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME: No, I came early for that reason. I probably got more preparation than any player. It never crossed my mind. The wind you can't control, but it's the same for the other one. But, no, I don't think, you know, anything specifically with the Toronto conditions, no.

Q. Does it make it tougher because it's your home tournament in Canada, only once a year do you get to play in front of this size of a crowd? Maybe just assess and talk about your feelings after a match here in Canada like that.

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME: Yeah, a bit of, obviously playing in Canada, I mean, it's more disappointing. You feel like, okay, you want to play as many matches as possible. When you lose in an opening match, it's tough. It's tough. I've been there obviously before in my career, but it never feels better. So that's not easy.

Also because, you know, these are tournaments, Masters 1000, Grand Slams, that I want to play well in, and so far it hasn't gone well. So, moving on to Cincy, going tomorrow, and then get ready for that one.

Q. How did you feel coming in, because you looked great in practice on the practice court. Is there a little bit of added pressure when you step out there, does it feel different in that sense?

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME: Well, maybe we could say that if I had a terrible start, but I had a good start. So, you know, sometimes you see all the nerves, there's always nerves, but how you're going to deal with that in the first few games. I thought I did pretty well.

Then after, it's a game of him adjusting, me adjusting to him, and kind of like finding the better compromise. I think that, I mean, at times he played like there was no wind. He played high-risk tennis and it paid off. Maybe I was a bit too conservative.

But, again, that's one take, but if I had to play the match again, I don't know if I would do much differently. But sometimes he was just too good.

Q. I wanted to switch gears for a second and ask you about Vasek retiring, and specifically the hole that that's going to leave for the Canadian Davis Cup team. Because he was always sort of the glue guy in doubles that you knew would be there. How do you see that position being filled, and just what we're going to be missing with him heading into retirement.

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME: Well, obviously we know he always brought great energy, great passion, so we're going to miss that. Obviously in doubles, like we always had obviously elite doubles players in Canada, Nestor, and even before Nestor. Vasek kind of became that guy that you could count on always to put him in decisive doubles.

But we're a good young group, guys with big weapons, strength, Gab and myself and Denis. So we're going to figure it out once we get to play more and more together.

Q. Just looking ahead, what do you feel you have to do personally to sort of bounce back from this one and kind of find your best tennis ahead of the final Grand Slam of the season?

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME: It's not easy because I did my best in this week of practice. Yeah, I mean, I'm working on everything, obviously my strengths. But that's the challenge of the sport is like, you can try your best, even today I was trying my best on every point, and it's not enough.

So, obviously on one hand I need to give credit to my opponent, and on the other hand I have dig a little bit deeper and see where can I find solutions within myself. Because obviously I'm not a huge believer of like, you know, you're going to take a magic pill, and things outside, and you're just going to like become the best player in the world all of a sudden. No, like everything comes from within, and you just need to figure it out. That's it.