Shapovalov and Auger-Aliassime: their Miami Open journey by the numbers
Canada’s young tennis stars have been making headlines for several months, both in Canada and internationally. Last week, Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime both reached the semi-finals of the Miami Open. And it’s huge.
To better understand the magnitude of their rise in recent months, let’s take a look at the numbers.
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Félix and Denis: a bromance we love
Félix Auger-Aliassime: the one who breaks all age records
A year ago, we talked about Felix Auger-Aliassime as a next generation player, someone who could take over in a few years. Few experts, even within Tennis Canada, had predicted that his climb would be so dizzying.
Then last week in Miami, he became the youngest player in tournament history to reach the semifinals.
182: FAA’s spot a year ago on March 19, 2018, in the world rankings.
100: Auger-Aliassime broke through the top 100 a little over a month ago, on February 25, 2019, when he reached the finals of the Rio Open. And it was not a discrete entry: he was 60th.
33: The new world ranking of Auger-Aliassime in the ATP rankings. Of course, this is his best career ranking. Auger-Aliassime is the youngest player to reach this rank since Lleyton Hewitt on October 18, 1999, who was exactly the same age (18 years, 7 months and 24 days).
24: FAA has jumped 24 places since last week, the biggest climb of the week. His new rank has allowed him to obtain one of four wildcard entries for the Madrid Open coming up next month.
34: The highest ranking that Rafael Nadal had obtained at the current age of Felix Auger-Aliassime.
2000: Auger-Aliassime was the first child of the 2000s to be on the main draw of a grand slam tournament at Flushing Meadows last August.
5: The number of wins in his first five games against top-20 players. He has the best result in history for this statistic.
We don’t know exactly what is waiting for the two friends, but what we do know is that it will be great.