FAA

Felix Auger-Aliassime was 14 years old when Guillaume Marx started coaching him, and what stood out most to Marx about the young star from Montreal wasn’t the monster serve, incredible speed or big forehand, though those were all obvious weapons.

“He had a strong will,” said Marx, who coached Auger-Aliassime for six years. “If he had a match, he believed he could win. He was all in. That was the most impressive aspect to me.”   

The Canadian’s will, belief and “all in” attitude sure have been impressing lately, and on full display for all to see. Over the last week at the US Open, Auger-Aliassime has upset the world No. 3, 8 and 15 to earn himself a return to the Grand Slam semifinal four years after he made it there for the first time. 

The 25-year-old is now two wins away from his first Grand Slam title, with his biggest test still ahead. On Friday at 7 p.m. ET, Auger-Aliassime faces world No. 1 and defending US Open champion Jannik Sinner with a berth to the final on the line. 

The last time Auger-Aliassime lost, it was to Sinner. The Italian beat him handily three weeks ago in the quarterfinal of the Cincinnati Masters 1000 event to the dominant tune of 6-0, 6-2. Auger-Aliassime showed a flash of fight in that match, breaking Sinner on his opening service game in the second set and winning his serve to take an early 2-0 lead, but that’s all he could get from Sinner. 

The world No. 27, Auger-Aliassime recorded zero aces and eight double-faults along with 28 unforced errors in that match. All of those numbers need to change big-time if he’s going to have a shot against Sinner.  

“He needs to serve well, it’s his No. 1 weapon. I don’t see a good match if he’s not serving well and then has to play a lot of balls out of his serves, getting into rallies on his own serves all the time — that would be difficult,” said Marx, who’s the VP of high performance at Tennis Canada. “He has to play obviously a great match all around, but particularly in the first place, he needs to be able to hold serve and go deep in the sets, and then see if at the end of sets he may have some chances.” 

Sinner broke Auger-Aliassime right out of the gate in their last meeting, which set the stage for a drubbing. “I think that put a lot of pressure on the whole game after that, because it’s Felix’s strength, his serve,” Marx said. “You can’t beat a guy that’s No. 1 in the world if your No. 1 strength is not performing.” 

Auger-Aliassime’s serve has been performing well at Arthur Ashe Stadium so far. In his four-set win over de Minaur on Wednesday afternoon, he pointed out in his post-match on-court interview that “it wasn’t pretty at all times” (he had 50 unforced errors), but it was pretty some of the time. The Canadian finished with 22 aces and 51 winners in the four-set victory that saw him claw back after dropping the first set. 

“He has shown fight, and I think he’s coming into this next match confident that he can use the circumstances of the match — if he has a door that’s opening, that he would be able to go through this door,” Marx explained. “Obviously, he’s playing an incredible player that will not leave a lot of doors open, but if that happens, with the way (Auger-Aliassime) was playing the last three matches, he will take advantage.” 

Sinner heads into the semifinal on a dominant run, riding a 26-match winning streak in hard-court Majors. Sinner has dropped just one set in New York in his bid to repeat as US Open champion, and that was against Canadian Denis Shapovalov. A 20-time winner on the ATP Tour, the 24-year-old Sinner owns four Grand Slam titles already. 

As Auger-Aliassime vies for his first, the former world No. 6 comes off a couple of seasons that saw him battle injuries and shaken confidence. He hadn’t performed well in big events this season prior to the US Open — he didn’t get past the second round in any other Grand Slam, and lost his opener at the National Bank Open presented by Rogers at home in July, but he’s played solidly overall. Auger-Aliassime earned a pair of wins at ATP 250 events in January, and Friday will be his eighth semifinal this season.  

“The perception from the public was not positive because he was not performing in the very big events, but he’s always been Top-15 at the (PIF ATP Live Race to Turin) ranking since the beginning of the year, so this is something that I think has been building his confidence over the season,” Marx said. 

Auger-Aliassime is now 10^th in the ATP ranking that sees the top seven or eight qualify for the ATP Finals in November, the season-ending event for the highest-ranked on Tour. 

A seven-time winner on the ATP, Auger-Aliassime is closing in on achieving one of his goals for the season, which was to get back into the world’s Top 10. He started in New York ranked 27^th and has moved up to 13th due to his performance so far, higher than he’s been ranked in more than two years. “I believe he can reach his goal,” Marx said. 

No Canadian man has ever won the US Open. In Marx’s mind, Auger-Aliassime has the skill to make history. 

“We know that Felix can play at a really high level and to see this level back into a Grand Slam semifinal, it is a great pleasure,” he said. “We know that he could do that, and he didn’t do that for a while, so it’s very happy for him that he could show what he can do.”  

Auger-Aliassime has always gone into matches thinking he can win, and Marx believes it’s no different for the Canadian as he gets set to go toe-to-toe with the World No. 1. 

“He is performing really well,” Marx said. “I think he is entering with nothing to lose, and with the state of mind of taking opportunities if they appear.” 

After his last win on Arthur Ashe, Auger-Aliassime stood smiling in the middle of the court and said: “The biggest challenges are yet to come, and that’s what I live for.” 

Next up is the World No. 1, and a chance to make history as the first Canadian man to crack a US Open final.