Auger-Aliassime Calls out “Disgrace of a Rule” After Win over Davidovich Fokina at Wimbledon

It takes a lot to get the typically mild-mannered Felix Auger-Aliassime upset. On Day 7 at Wimbledon, it happened. The Canadian was miffed about the way Alejandro Davidovich Fokina stopped play for a medical timeout when he was serving for the match in the fourth set. 

The Spaniard had saved two match points, and after the timeout – his second of the match – he broke to prolong the set. 

He would later go on to force a fifth set, which third-seeded Auger-Aliassime won 6-1 to book his date with Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals. 

After the match Auger-Aliassime had a brief chat with Davidovich Fokina in which he expressed his feelings about the timeout (we’ve embedded a video below that will likely be removed by Wimbledon, a different story for another time).  

He later talked about it in press as well, explaining why he felt he had to talk to his opponent, and where he stands on the issue. 

Note: Rules currently allow for a player to stop play without waiting for the end of a game for an “acute medical condition”, and a rolled ankle would qualify in that category. (The rule does allow for anti-abuse safeguards (the umpire can deem if the affected player is gaming), but as you can imagine, it’s never a good risk to take, claiming that an injured player is faking it.)

“The interactions between him and I, I don’t want to get into that. If he wants to come in here and talk about it, he can. But he knows my opinion,” he said. “That’s one of these things that I have differences with people in my life on tour. They know what I think. That’s the most important.”

Auger-Aliassime, like many, believes the rule should be changed. He says players should forfeit the game if they need a medical timeout while their opponent is serving. 

“Now what I can say, though, is that I think the rule has to change. I think that obviously as long as the rule is like that, a player will use it to their advantage.

“I think that it’s very simple: if you’re hurt bad, or whatever, you’re hurt, while the game’s going on of your opponent, in the middle of the game, the opponent is serving, the shot clock is on, basically when you’re hurt bad, you’re forfeiting every point until you can call the physio. If the physio helps you recover, you play your service game. If you’re hurt bad, then you retire, obviously.

“But to stop in the middle of an opponent’s service game and to be able to call the physio, I think that’s a disgrace of a rule. I don’t see any other sport where you can do that. I mark my words. It’s a disgrace of a rule.” 

There doesn’t appear to be any bad blood between the two – this was just a case of Auger-Aliassime saying what he felt and Davidovich Fokina listening. 

The match itself was an incredible contest, that featured what may end up being the point of the tournament, earlier in the fourth set. They way that Davidovich Fokina throws himself around the court, it’s no wonder that he often needs medical timeouts.