By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday September 8, 2021
In just his tenth Grand Slam singles draw, Felix Auger-Aliassime has cracked a giant milestone, reaching his first major semifinal with his victory over Carlos Alcaraz on Tuesday in New York (6-3, 3-1, (ret)).
But anybody who has followed Auger-Aliassime knows that the journey has been long, and the process never easy to master. The Canadian himself talked about his journey after reaching the semifinals on Tuesday night.
He said that boosting his own self-belief, through adversity, has been the key to his arrival on the Grand Slam stage this summer.
“I've gotten impatient sometimes this year, last year,” Auger-Aliassime has said. “I had I think losses that I was disappointed with either in Grand Slams or in Masters. I think I just learned to accept them, to keep my self-belief high, to keep working well, and things would come. Have the belief that things would come, and you never know exactly when, at some point things would click and I would get a great result.”
Auger-Aliassime entered Wimbledon this year with a record of 8-8 at the Grand Slams. Since, he has won nine of ten. Somethings when a breakthrough is achieved, things can happen fast.
The Canadian will face Russia’s Daniil Medvedev for a spot in his first major final on Friday.
“I'm happy that this tournament, on a stage like this, the US Open, to be performing the way I'm performing,” he said. “At the same time I'm still in the tournament, so that's the best part, is that it's not over. Certainly, yeah, it's already been a great tournament. I hope to do more.”
Great for Canada, Great for Quebec
Auger-Aliassime is joined by 19-year-old Leylah Fernandez in the semis, which means that for the first time in US Open history Canada is represented by a semifinalist in the men’s and women’s singles section of the draw.
“It's great for Canada. It's great for Quebec,” he said. “We're both born in Montreal. I mean, I never thought a day like this would come. Both a little girl and a little boy from Montreal, both at the same time in the semifinals of the US Open. It's special. It's special. It's special for us. I hope the people back home appreciate the moment also. We do a lot.It's great. But it would be amazing if we were both in a final, right?”