By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Wednesday, August 9, 2023
It was Felix Auger-Aliassime's 23rd birthday, but he couldn't unwrap elusive victory.
Australian qualifier Max Purcell played party crasher snatching celebration from Auger-Aliassime and home fans with a 6-4, 6-4 sweep in Toronto on Tuesday night.
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The loss continued a recent downward spiral for the Canadian No. 1, who suffered his fourth straight defeat.
Afterward, Auger-Aliassime, whose last win was over No. 240 Pablo Llamas Ruiz in May, came to a blunt conclusion on how to stall his free fall.
Man up, show up and don't play scared tennis.
"Of course, I'm a better player [than I've shown], but I don't fell like, oh, I have all of the solutions all of a sudden and it's just going to go away," Auger-Aliassime told the media in Toronto. "The reality is you need to go out there and show up. Like, don't, you know, shy away and be scared.
"I need to—I don't know how to say—like, be a man and show up, you know, and not be scared to lose. And just whatever happens, try my best."
The world No. 12 said he can't change the past, he can only focus on the now and hope his work will be rewarded in the future.
"So for me, it's like, okay. Just focused on what's to come," Auger-Aliassime said. "You know, now the match is over. The best thing I can do is try to practice well. And the next day that I'm practicing,try to see what I can do better from this moment on.
"But I think it's pointless for me to look back in the past far because it's different circumstances. I think I just need to focus on what's happening right now."
Photo credit: Getty