Greg Rusedski compares ‘real deal’ Felix Auger-Aliassime to Rafael Nadal
Greg Rusedski has heaped the praise on Felix Auger-Aliassime, hailing the Canadian teen as the new Rafael Nadal.
18-year-old Auger-Aliassime massively impressed at the Miami Open, making it all the way to the semi-finals before inexperience got the best of him against John Isner.
However, Rusedski is absolutely certain that the Canadian is “the real deal”.
“You look at him, he’s come through qualifiers this week – which is incredible in itself.
“You look at the wins, [Marton] Fucsovics, [Hubert] Hurkacz, then [Nikoloz] Basilashvili,” Rusedski said on Amazon Prime.
“You look at the one-two punch with the serve and the forehand, the serve is rapid, 120mph, 125mph-plus already at his age – it’s only going to get stronger.
“You can see the rotation and the spin he creates. The names he’s beaten are guys who are pretty solid mentally and physically.
“To do that at 18 years of age, the last guy I saw doing that at 18 years of age was Rafael Nadal.
“The comparison, we were talking about the Challenger circuit, he was winning Challengers at 15 and the only two guys to do that were Rafa and Juan Martin del Potro.
“He is in a good class with guys who have gone on to have great careers and win major championships.
“He just keeps on impressing me match after match. He has a great aura about him, a presence. He’s got that superstar appeal.”
Rusedski’s fellow pundit Daniela Hantuchova was similarly impressed, adding: “I completely agree with Greg, this guy has it all.
“I can’t see one weakness in his game or his mental attitude. He’s going to be lifting a lot of Grand Slam trophies.”
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