‘Did I just fire myself’ – Serena Williams coach offers to lead ATP star after missed Grand Slam opportunities
Felix Auger-Aliassime split from his long-time coach, and now a tennis great has put her hat in the ring to be in the Canadian’s box one day.
Following this year’s Wimbledon, where the 25-year-old lost in a five-set epic to Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals, Auger-Aliassime parted ways with Frederic Fontang after nearly 10 years together.
The duo started working together in 2017, with the 6ft 4in player reaching a career-high of world No 4 and going on to win nine ATP Tour titles.
However, their journey together has come to an end, with the player saying on Instagram, “After nearly ten years of working together, it has recently been decided that Wimbledon would be my last tournament with Frederic by my side as my coach.
“Today, I want to express my deepest respect, gratitude, and admiration for his dedication and the passion he brought every single day to helping me achieve my goals.
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“Since I was 16 years old, he has guided my development and helped me experience incredible moments through this sport. He has also been by my side during the toughest moments of my career.”
Even though Auger-Aliassime sits fourth in the rankings, it seems he feels former professional Fontang has taken him as far as he can go.
The Montreal-born player, who previously worked with Rafael Nadal’s uncle Toni between 2021-24, has reached the quarter-finals at all for majors, in addition to two US Open semi-finals.
But the 2022 Davis Cup winner clearly believes he can kick on from here, something six-time major winner Rennae Stubbs seems to agree with.
The Australian, who is part of Serena Williams’ coaching setup, admitted she would “love” to coach Auger-Aliassime, while outlining what he needs to do going forward.
She said on her own podcast, “Felix, I am available. And if you’d listened to Todd Woodbridge a couple of weeks ago, he said that I’m… I’m not available, actually. What am I saying?! Not for a while.
“Did I just fire myself? If there was a player that I would love to coach, it would be him. As we talked about many times, I would loosen him up by making him understand his athleticism and the way he plays, he needs to relax a little bit.
“We saw some amazing tennis from him against Novak. That was definitely the match of the tournament on the men’s side, five hours and 15 minutes. The longest match Novak Djokovic has ever played at Wimbledon, which is pretty amazing.”
Since last year’s US Open, Auger-Aliassime has made it to three Grand Slam quarter-finals. In New York, he lost to Jannik Sinner in four sets in the last four, threw away a first set lead in a four set loss to Flavio Cobolli in this year’s French Open quarter-finals, and then missed the chance to knock out Djokovic at Wimbledon.
The French Open defeat in particular felt like a missed opportunity, especially as Carlos Alcaraz was injured and Sinner and Djokovic went out early, and perhaps with another coach in his corner, Auger-Aliassime can compete for Grand Slam titles.
But while his serve and forehand are big weapons, the backhand was a shot Djokovic targeted at SW19 and it eventually paid dividends. However, at 25, there is still plenty of time for him to win a maiden major.
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