auger-aliassime-swiss-indoors-title

He is calm, relaxed, and humble off the tennis court.

On the court, he’s become an absolute world-beater.

Felix Auger-Aliassime capped a third consecutive singles title in as many weeks, defeating Denmark’s Holger Rune 6-3, 7-5 to hoist the trophy at the Swiss Indoors ATP500 event in Basel.

The victory pushes the 22-year-old’s win streak to 13 consecutive matches and moves him to the verge of qualification for the end-of-year ATP Finals in Turin, which features the top eight players of the season.

It’s been the longest stretch of wins in singles action from a Canadian since Bianca Andreescu won 17 straight matches in the summer of 2019, a run that saw her collect titles at the National Bank Open (formerly Rogers Cup) and U.S. Open.

Auger-Aliassime celebrated his victory in style, collapsing to the ground in delight.

“I’m feeling all the good emotions that come with winning a tournament. It’s amazing,” said the champion following his latest victory.

While all aspects seem to be working, from his penetrative groundstrokes, and reliable net play, to his improved return, it has been his serve that has taken him to new heights.

Auger-Aliassime capped his finals win over Rune with an astonishing 86th consecutive service hold, a streak that dates back to an early round loss to Roberto Bautista Agut in Astana, Kazakhstan on Oct. 3rd.

Through ATP titles in Florence, Antwerp, and now Basel, Felix has not conceded his serve once, and has been dead accurate in hitting his spots. Auger-Aliassime tallied 57 aces across five match wins in Switzerland.

This level of elite serving has allowed him to swing with freedom in return games and play with an aggressive edge, placing opponents on their back foot quickly.

He has certainly had his share of tough opponents on the other side of the net too.

In the semifinals in Basel, Auger-Aliassime thoroughly outplayed Carlos Alcaraz 6-3, 6-2, notching his second victory over the world number one in a month and a half.

He demoralized World No. 28 Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia 6-1, 6-0 in a mere 49 minutes and afterward called the performance ‘the best match I’ve played in my life’.

He’s notched many other notable wins this month.

He’s dismissed big-hitting American Sebastian Korda and Brandon Nakashima, Italian youngster Lorenzo Musetti, Britain’s Daniel Evans, and long-time veteran talent Richard Gasquet of France.

Auger-Aliassime is also the last player to stop Novak Djokovic in his tracks, beating the 21-time grand slam champion 6-3, 7-6 at the Laver Cup team event in late September.

There will be little rest for Auger-Aliassime, who now travels to France to compete in the Paris Masters where he’s seeded eighth.

However, with his latest singles title, he has moved up to sixth in the Race to Turin, leapfrogging Andrey Rublev of Russia and sitting 725 ranking points ahead of American Taylor Fritz, who is still giving chase.

Auger-Aliassime is on track to become the first Canadian man to qualify for the ATP Finals since Milos Raonic did so in 2016.

His recent successful run of fall tennis has been on indoor courts.

“No surprise there,” Felix said himself, as a native of Montreal.

Many of his junior years were spent in domes, working on his game through the brisk Quebec winters.

Indoor hard courts also tend to favour fast, quick strike tennis, which Auger-Aliassime has successfully imposed the past month with his dominant serve-plus-one attack.

Now with his latest title in Basel, Auger-Aliassime’s name is etched next to that of a familiar face who dominated the tournament for years.

Roger Federer, whom Auger-Aliassime shares a birthday with and has referred to as an idol, won the Swiss Indoors event a record 10 times in his career.

Sure enough, Federer even entered his mind before taking the court.

“I actually thought about him this morning,” said Felix on court after his victory.

“I thought how cool it would be if I win here, where he won 10 times. I’m very far from that, but it’s so cool to have my name with all these great champions at this prestigious tournament.”

While Federer’s historic records may feel out of reach for Felix, they now share two things in common.

Birthday – August 8th.

Basel Open – Champion.