French Open: Felix Auger-Aliassime makes ‘destroyed’ admission after loss to Flavio Cobolli
A heartbroken Felix Auger-Aliassime was at a loss after a “difficult day” saw him exit the French Open at the hands of Flavio Cobolli.
The fourth seed started as the favourite and certainly looked in control as he won the opening set and went a break up early in the second, but the match then turned on its head as Cobolli broke back and went on to dominate the rest of the match.
The Italian cruised to the finish line as he came away with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 win to reach his first-ever Grand Slam semi-final, while the Canadian was left to wonder what could have been.
The 25-year-old praised his opponent during the post-match press conference, saying: “He was the better player, credit to him and I have to improve. That’s it.”
With his run at Roland Garros, Auger-Aliassime became the first Canadian to reach the quarter-final of all four Grand Slams while he will also jump to a career-high No 4 in the ATP Rankings next week.
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But there was nothing that could lift his spirits as he struggled to come up with answers with the defeat leaving him devastated and not too sure what’s to come next.
“On one end, like in a bigger perspective, I mean I can’t complain with my life you know, but I’m in a place right now with my tennis career that is tough you know. I’m a little bit destroyed today, it’s tough,” he said.
“I usually handle losses pretty well, I have to say – my whole career I’d go back to training with optimism and positivity. But now I feel like I’m not the player I want to be so today’s a difficult day.”
Despite the windy conditions at Roland Garros, organisers opted to keep the roof on Court Philippe-Chatrier open for the start of the match, leading to complaints from the great John McEnroe.
As the conditions worsened, the roof was eventually closed at the end of the first set and that could well have had an effect on Auger-Aliassime’s performance, but he refused to use that as an excuse.
“Obviously, the first set it’s not really tennis, you’re just trying to manage to put the ball in the court, but it’s an indoor but quite slow you know slow heavy so my serve didn’t have an impact, my forehand didn’t have an impact, and he found better solutions than me so that’s what happened,” the Canadian explained.
