NATIONAL BANK OPEN

August 11, 2021

Felix Auger-Aliassime

Press Conference

D. LAJOVIC/F. Auger-Aliassime

7-5, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Tough match today. What do you think was your biggest challenge out there as far as your own level and what you felt went wrong.

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME: Yeah, when I started, I didn't feel like the conditions were easy. A little bit windy, and, you know, the ball flying a little bit off my racquet.

Every day conditions in tennis are a little bit different. You've got to try to adapt to them. Today I thought I served well, to be honest. I thought the margins were pretty small.

If you look at the match overall, the stats, you know, especially in the second set, I felt like I had chances where I could have done better to get a break, to give myself a chance to maybe going three sets, but it is what it is.

I thought he played a solid match. He served well. He did what he had to. I didn't, I guess, play great when I needed to and, you know, missed a couple of easy balls, a couple of forehands. Yeah, that let me down specifically.

Q. Can we just talk about what the emotions are out there dropping a match like that?

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME: It's not easy, for sure. Especially here. I mean, every week you want to win. I wanted to play a good tournament here. I thought I prepared well.

You know, I just have to accept the situation. You know, there is nothing more to do right now. It's okay. You know, I have seen situations like this before.

You know, as far as my game, it's okay. I feel like I can, of course, play better. I feel like I will play better in the future, but, you know, the tennis season, there is a lot of tournaments, a lot of matches, ups and downs. You've got to do the most out of every situation. That's what I'm going to try to do right now.

You know, I'm okay. I just accept the loss, accept the defeat, and move on.

Q. You went on an emotional breakthrough run at Wimbledon. I'm sure your first Olympics were emotional, as well. What's it like having to reset coming off of those experiences?

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME: Well, it's not easy. Of course I'm a little bit tired. I think it was a great first experience to play the Olympics. An Olympic year is different. Usually after Wimbledon I would have a bit of rest, a bit of time to regroup before coming to America, you know, and just starting off fresh.

This time around I had to travel back to back, and I just played a lot of tennis. Even though I didn't win a lot of matches either at the Olympics or last week, you know, there's a lot of traveling, a lot of practices, a lot of balls hit. Maybe that's taken a toll on me a little bit, too. I don't know.

Anyway, I'm young. It's a good first experience to play a year like this. I think in the future I'll be more ready.

Q. On today's match, what was the challenge with the wind? What was that like today?

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME: Sometimes the wind is turning a lot on center court. Not sure which way it's going all the time. Then just makes the ball tough to control.

Today was, especially on my forehand side, especially in the second set, played a poor game. Missed easy forehands to get broken. Then, you know, he did well. Dusan is a good player, of course. You know, he's not been having the most amazing year for him, but any match he can play really well, and he did today.

It was a tricky round, but, yeah, the conditions, you know, you have to do the best with them.

Q. I was just wondering what tournament are you going to play next? How are you going to reset for that tournament?

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME: Sorry, what?

Q. What tournament are you playing next? How are you going to reset?

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME: I'm playing the Masters in Cincinnati next week. You know, now I have a couple of days to use to rest, I guess, to regroup, to train. It's the same situation every time.

It's nice to go deep in tournaments, of course. And when you don't, then, you know, you try to use that time to train and to get ready for the next one. That's what I'll do.

Q. What is the most difficult thing that you had to deal with playing during the pandemic?

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME: During the pandemic, I mean, of course not playing with fans, playing in different circumstances that we're used to. That's been the weird thing.

But overall, I mean, for me it was okay. It wasn't so bad. We were lucky to actually be playing tennis, so nothing crazy outside of the competition that it's tough, pandemic or not.

Q. Last question about the match today. As far as matchups and kind of your game plan coming in against someone like Dusan, a veteran, solid from the baseline but he doesn't have the big weapons like some other guys do, do you try and plan to be more aggressive or just more solid from the baseline when you come into this match? Talk to me a little bit about the game plan coming into this, if you could.

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME: Well, the first thing is focus on yourself. I'm an aggressive player, so I thought I actually served pretty well today, which is of course an important aspect for me. Then, yeah, I was trying to be aggressive, move him, close in to the net when I can, just the usual.

Then there were some points in the match where I thought, okay, since, you know, the conditions are windy and the ball is flying off my racquet a little bit more than other days, then I thought, okay, I'm going to need to find a way to be a little bit more solid. I thought I could have done better at many moments, few key points when I was up on return games, like Love-30 or Love-15. There was a couple of points that I think I let go too easy on him, and in the end that wasn't good enough today.