ROLAND GARROS

May 25, 2022

Felix Auger-Aliassime

Press Conference

F. AUGER-ALIASSIME/C. Ugo Carabelli

6-0, 6-3, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Solid performance today. Can you talk us through the match, please.

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME: Yes, it was a better start than my first round, for sure. You know, to win 6-Love first set is the best way to start a match. Especially, you know, in a Grand Slam, three out of five.

So I think that, you know, gave me confidence that if I kept going this way and, you know, won my service games and stayed, you know, aggressive and then trying to dominate, I would give myself a good chance to win in straight sets.

Good, complete match from my part. Not getting broken is always good. It's good to be through again.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. I just wondered, because we have seen a few seeded players struggle a bit in the first round on Chatrier: Ruud, Tsitsipas, you. You came through today with a very good result. Do you think it's the nerves or the stadium or what made a difference today from the first match?

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME: Well, my opponent on the first round, it was first time also playing on such a big court, at any tournament, really. I feel like if one had to be more advantage of the court would be me. I'm more used to playing on these type of courts. I've played on center courts of other Grand Slams and big tournaments.

I think Tsitsipas, he had a tough opponent yesterday, I didn't see the match, but I guess played good at the start. Then myself the first round my opponent played great in the start, and I was kind of playing just the way he wanted to, and then I changed things up and the scenario of the match changed completely.

No, I think it's case by case. Nothing with the center court. I actually love playing out there, better than the court today, for sure. It's lovely.

No, nothing with the court.

Q. We have some young players now on the way up like yourself, Casper Ruud, Alcaraz. Can you say something about what you think about them, yourself? Who's got the biggest potential, new superstar? Will we have a new trio in the future like Nadal, Federer? Say something about the young players and yourself.

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME: Well, we can already see there's players in the middle of their 20s, Medvedev, Zverev, Tsitsipas, you know, are not next gen anymore, not so young. They're middle of their 20s. They have already done great things.

And then we've got another group, which is of course Carlos is very young still, myself, I'm there, and then Casper is also becoming a very solid player that's winning constantly tournaments after tournaments.

So I guess the future will say what will happen. It's tough to say now if there will be two, three, four players that are above the other ones, like, what we saw in the last generation.

But at least for now, what we can see is there is going to be, I'd say 8 to 10 players that have good potential to, let's say, to dream or to chase for the No. 1 ranking at some point in their career.

I count myself in that. Of course Carlos, of course Casper, and then Jannik Sinner who is also a great player. Many great players.

We will see what the future holds, but I feel like, yeah, I want to put myself also in that position.

Q. Off the court I just wanted to ask you about Wimbledon and ranking points. Apologies if you have been asked before, but could you give me your reaction, I guess, to that. I know you were on the player council before. I just wondered if you could share why you stepped down or when that was, if possible.

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME: Yeah, well, first thing, the player council, I stepped out at the end of last year for just personal reasons of my career. I just thought I was at an age still where I had a lot of things to do in terms of my career, to focus on, you know, building myself, and really focusing on what is important is my career.

As you can see, the other council members were all above 30 years old, and I just felt like, okay, it was a great experience, one year to learn how the system works and to see kind of the behind the scenes of some decisions. But after a year, I just felt like, you know, it was needed for me to really take all the time I need and focus on what's the most important, because it is time-consuming sometimes. It's a lot of work.

I can imagine that the players that were on the council this year had a lot to deal with, you know. And then of course with the board and the ATP, of course this Wimbledon decision, and then before, earlier in the year, I mean, still dealing with, there were a lot of different things.

I know it wasn't an easy decision. It really was unfortunate to see that the Russian players couldn't play. You know them personally and you know they haven't done anything wrong in that conflict. They are personally against it. They deserve to play a tournament as much as I do.

I feel like I put myself in that position and think, well, yeah, it's a bit unfair. I don't control what's happening there. Even though you feel like it's not the most important tournament, yes, but it's still like any job, you deserve to do your job, you know. I know tennis is public and everything, but that was unfortunate.

But in terms of the points, of course it's going to be tricky. I mean, it's the first time we play a tournament without points. It's kind of the first time I see this happening. It's unfortunate because at the end we are with the players, and, I know they want to react, but, you know, we are faced with a difficult situation.

I mean, I'm not the worst myself but there's many players that are going to drop of points, drop a lot in the rankings. It's a bit unfair, and I know it would have been unfair to keep points, but I feel like there would have been alternative solutions.

Q. I know you were a big fan of Jo growing up. I'm not sure if you got to see his last match yesterday. If you could just reflect how influential he was on your career and any thoughts on Jo's retirement.

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME: Yeah, it was really emotional. I was watching at home, and it was like, yeah, I was getting tears in my eyes pretty much, because it's crazy to see players that you admire growing up retiring. I feel like I'm going to feel the same when the best-of-the-best players retire, Rafa and Roger and Novak.

It's a weird feeling, because I can in a way relate to that and put myself in that position where like one day I'm going to play, like, my last match, my last game, my last point. When it gets to that point, it's really emotional.

Because you think back probably of since you were a kid, like you are always like looking forward to another match and to another opportunity, to future goals and to see this all ending and think like I'm never going to play another tennis match again when it's been your life for more than 20 years, like Jo, for example. It's quite emotional. It's something.

I think he was also, it was the time, you could see his body wasn't holding up anymore, and I think the image is just very powerful where he gave everything he had until the end until his body couldn't hold up. Yeah, he had to let it go.

He's a great guy. You know, I hope he stays around tennis and I hope I get to see him often.

Q. A quick follow-up on the Wimbledon stuff. I know a few players have kind of said they might think of skipping it. Are you set on going or are you still kind of undecided?

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME: No, I'm set on going. It's a Grand Slam. Myself, look, I'm in the top 10 now. In the next few years, I have to take every opportunity I can to try and win one of those tournaments. I'm not going to skip that opportunity.

But, yeah, I think also the tournament's going to happen however it happens, and then we are going to move on to something else.

But it's still an amazing tournament and a great opportunity to win.

THE MODERATOR: Questions in French.

Q. I wanted to talk about the country of your father, Togo, because here you are succeeding in moving forward in Roland Garros. I would like to know if in Togo, in one of the countries of origin of one of your parents, are people following you? Are you in contact with this country, people, relatives, or people from this country where you are highly committed as a citizen?

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME: Yes, I don't have direct contacts, but indirectly through my father I'm in contact with -- well, he tells me that people from his family are following more and more matches, are able to watch matches, uncles, aunts, cousins are able to watch.

From what I hear over there people are proud to see me progressing on the tour. They feel close to me due to my family origins, so they are proud and they follow more and more.

I would like to go there in the near future if I have the opportunity. It would be great to see people there in person and to meet people who are following me and supporting me remotely.

Q. Your foundation is continuing to organize actions locally?

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME: Yes, the project continues but it's with a charity which is called CARE International, and with BNP Paribas, we collect funds, and they perform the actions locally.

We continue investing in youth education, in the village in the north of Togo in the renovation of classrooms, of sports fields, access to athletic equipment, the training of trainers. So we have continuously actions that are undertaken thanks to the money that myself and BNP Paribas are able to collect.

Q. We know that mental health of players is something very important. There is the social media that are also something important with respect to that. There are a lot of messages of love but also of hate, racism. How do you manage this? How do you think that it can affect the career of a player?

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME: Yes, it can affect a player. I think you have to detach from these media as much as possible.

Personally I was not so much affected but we are all humans and receiving hate messages. It doesn't affect me, but it's not pleasant.

I try to detach, to be detached. I have the chance of being a great structure in terms of social media, communication, and I'm able to focus on what I have to do without having to read messages, without having to spend too much time on social media.

Because for me, of course it's commentaries on the reality but it's all sort of a parallel world to what we are currently living. Because for me, the match is finished today, I go back home, I have my close team, and I really try to focus solely on what is happening around me and not what is happening on the Internet.

Q. Of course this match was much easier than the first match. Do you have the impression that you still have things to improve before the third round? Although you still don't know the opponent.

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME: Well, from the next match onwards, it will be more and more difficult. It's the same at each tournament, especially Grand Slams, first rounds, sometimes if you don't know the players very well, and it's never obvious to play a new player, because you have to be very cautious.

At the beginning of the match, he played very well at the beginning and he surprised me. I had to adjust, but it took a bit of time.

Here, I started much better and won in three straight sets, so it's much better. So I will have to raise my game level from the next match onwards.

Today there were positives, and there were things that didn't satisfy me, but in the end I was able to win all my serve games, so that's already a very good point. Then I won in three straight sets. That's what I wanted today, and that's what was most important.

Then we will have one match at a time. In a Grand Slam, there are matches where you play top tennis; other matches where you play not so good. Each time you try to find your way around.