By Richard Pagliaro | Sunday, November 13, 2022
Felix Auger-Aliassime spent the fall season raising the roof.
Bowing to Casper Ruud in his ATP Finals debut, the world 6 feels his back against the wall in Turin.
More: Unbreakable Ruud Makes Winning Start in Turin
Auger-Aliassime, who took the court with an ATP-best 27-5 record indoors, did not earn a break point in 7-6(4), 6-4 loss to the third-seeded Ruud.
Given 22-time Grand Slam king Rafael Nadal and Indian Wells champion Taylor Fritz, who face off later today, are the other members of the Green Group, Auger-Aliassime knows the pressure is on now if he's to advance from round-robin play.
"My back is against the wall, for sure," Auger-Aliassime told the media in Turin. "It would have been better to start off with a win here. For Casper, I'm sure it's a big weight off his shoulder.
"For me, I need to bounce back and play better, play a little bit better. I'm not far from playing well, but there's a few things I can do better.
"I will try to use the day tomorrow to do that, to work on a few things, then see how it goes the next day. We'll see who I play. They're playing tonight. I guess I play the loser of this match. But, yeah, I'm ready for it. At the end of the day, yeah, wasn't my way, but I'm ready for the challenge, for sure."
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The 22-year-old Canadian, accompanied in Turin by coaches Frederic Fontang and Toni Nadal, is winless in two prior meetings vs. Rafael Nadal, including a five-set Roland Garros loss last spring.
The ninth-ranked Fritz, who gained entry to the elite eight-man field after world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz was forced to withdraw due to a torn abdominal, edged Auger-Aliassime in their lone meeting at ATP Cup last January.
Auger-Aliassime admitted he has been coping with a virus since the Rolex Paris Masters, but said the illness did not impact his performance against Ruud. "It was tough in Paris. In the fall you get sometimes a cold," Auger-Aliassime said. "But nothing bad, you know? I had a few days to recover since then. It's nothing that affected me today.
"Yeah, I've been dealing with a normal, little virus in the last few days, but nothing that bad. Yeah, like I said, nothing that affected today."
Photo credit: Getty