“Future will tell. Future will tell”: Felix Auger-Aliassime ready to let time decide about his potential to compete top players despite incredible US Open run

Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime believes only ‘future will tell’ whether he is good enough to consistently compete with the best players in the world despite having a great run at the US Open. The 25-year-old suffered a hard-fought defeat in the semifinal of the fourth and the final Grand Slam of the year to defending champion Italy’s Jannik Sinner with a score of 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Auger-Aliassime spoke to the media after the match and was asked how close he feels to competing against top players like Sinner and Alcaraz. In response to that, Auger-Aliassime stated that he felt he was close to competing against the best in the world, but only the future will tell whether he is good enough to be a part of the discussion consistently.

“Future will tell. Future will tell,” said Auger-Aliassime. “I don't want to make too many predictions. Tonight I just want to take a moment to soak in the tournament and everything that was good. You obviously build your future with what's good in you and then you try to improve a little bit step by step. So I'm just trying to take that all in. But to say how close my level is, I mean, yeah, we were fighting out there. We had some good points. I was going toe to toe at times, some sets dominating. So, of course, I feel, you know, competitive, but future will tell, you know, how close I am. “

It was Auger-Aliassime’s second consecutive defeat to Sinner in the space of three weeks. The two earlier featured in the quarterfinal of the Cincinnati Open, where Sinner came out on top in straight sets with a score of 6-0, 6-2. Sinner, in his post-match talk, stated that Auger-Aliassime played much better tonight. In response to that, Auger-Aliassime admitted that he had a much better outing and highlighted that he was left surprised by the performance of Sinner in Cincinnati after not facing him for a couple of years.

“Yeah, I played much better [compared to Cincinnati],” said Auger-Aliassime. “I served much better. Like, it was weird. In Cincinnati, we hadn't played in years. And it was like I was caught by surprise in a way. Like, we hadn't practised, imagine, once, you know, in like three years. So it was like there's one thing to watch a guy, but there's like to be on the court with him. And just the way he was returning, how fast he was playing, it just caught me off guard a little bit. And then, you know, once you go down, like it's also two out of three. And then I went down quickly. So it affected my game. But tonight I was like, OK, I know what to expect. He still had a great start, but I was like I had much more belief that, you know, that as the match would go on, I would find a good level and be competitive. “

Talking about his own performance in the match and in the competition, Auger-Aliassime was of the opinion that he had played ‘a lot of things’. Auger-Aliassime, in particular, highlighted that the biggest positive for him that came out of the extended run at the competition is his ‘belief’ and ‘mentality’.

“Well, a lot of things,” said Auger-Aliassime. “I mean, because obviously there's the level, like the way I'm serving and the way I'm moving around the court, the back end, too. So there's many things. But I think on top of that is just the belief, the mentality, the conviction in myself that, you know, I have what it takes to win these type of matches. And even in tough matches like the quarterfinals was probably times where I was playing my worst, so to speak. It was still good, but my worst throughout the tournament. But I was still believing that, you know, my time will come and that I will play at a good level again. So I think those kind of matches are gratifying for me. And I think the mentality is something that I've been working on and that was good this week. “

During the contest, Auger-Aliassime had a lot of support from the crowd and at times, it felt like more than 70 per cent was supporting the Canadian tennis star. Auger-Aliassime was asked about getting so much support on the day against Sinner and stated that he understood why most of the spectators decided to support him.

“Yeah, it was good,” said Auger-Aliassime. “It was good. I mean, I understand. You know, I have my perspective as a player, but I understand the perspective from the fans too. You know, watching. I mean, Jannik, you know, all credit to him. He's been dominating on hard courts, but I mean, kind of everywhere. And, yeah, I mean, I think my story was just a little bit different. You know, this tournament, I think people have known my name around tennis. But it's like, OK, yeah, it was like a good story, you know, as much as long as it went on. It stopped tonight. But I'm very pleased, yeah, to come back home knowing that, you know, the crowd wanted me to go on and to keep playing well and to keep, you know, enjoying myself on the court.”