"The sun hits you pretty hard in Australia" jokes Auger-Aliassime after win over Cilic

Felix Auger-Aliassime scored his first win over Cilic in a tight 4-setter and he was very happy with the way he performed.

Early on it wasn't so good for Auger-Aliassime who played poorly in the first set. Cilic was hitting the ball very cleanly and Auger struggled a bit with the heat. The sun shines more in Australia than in Canada and he joked about it after the match:

“I’m feeling good. It was quite hot at the start, the sun here in Australia hits you pretty hard. It’s still early in the day, I’m going to have time to recover before I play again on Wednesday, so it’s the perfect scenario.”

On the match itself, Auger gave the following breakdown:

“He was hitting so clean at the start of the match. I played one poor game at 4-2 but the rest of the set I think he was just playing better than me, doing everything better. The second was tight, but that was a crucial turnaround. You can’t afford to go two-sets-to-love down, that would have been tough, so that was a crucial moment and then in the third I started feeling better and better.”

The win gives Auger-Aliassime confidence as he was proud the way he scored the win against a player he calls a great champion:

“It puts my self-belief even higher. This was my first win against him, at an important moment like this. I told him at the end of the match, he’s a champion, the way he handles himself, the way he plays, so he’s going to come out with his best level and test me and make me earn my win. I’m really relieved and happy to get through, especially the way I did it.”