PARIS — It was Thursday, but it felt like Wednesday all over again at Roland Garros.
Unbearable heat.
A higher-ranked opponent.
Another match, right after this one, for mixed doubles.
The only difference for Felix Auger-Aliassime, on this Thursday evening in Paris, is that he is one step closer to becoming the first Canadian to win an Olympic medal in singles tennis since it returned to the Olympics in Seoul 1988.
However, it was not easy. Auger-Aliassime looked to be cruising to a straight-sets victory over No. 6 Casper Ruud in the Olympic men’s singles quarter-final. But Ruud suddenly came back to life midway through the second set, pushing the 23-year-old all the way to a grueling tiebreak.
In the end, Auger-Aliassime rebounded to put away Ruud for a 6-4, 6-7 (8), 6-3 victory.
The Canadian is now on his way to a mixed doubles semi-final with Gaby Dabrowski against Czechia’s Katerina Siniakova and Tomas Machac. It’s becoming routine for him, these two-a-days. But if it leads to a medal or two, what is a little bit of schedule overload?
Auger-Aliassime had to work hard in the singles victory. He was drenched in sweat, but so was everyone in the stadium. Thursday was another fiery day in Paris, at an Olympics where the conversation seems to alternate between too much rain and too much heat. In this match, the players would stand still before each serve, but the fans and their fans would keep moving.
On Wednesday, Auger-Aliassime upset No. 4 Daniil Medvedev, who is competing as Individual Neutral Athlete — always an unpredictable opponent — in straight sets. Then, he hopped on over to mixed doubles with Dabrowski, where they reached the semi-finals after a win over the U.S. pairing of Coco Gauff and Taylor Fritz.
“What’s the most you can ask from yourself?” Auger-Aliassime told reporters after the match. “All the athletes come here and try to win and only a few do. If I can be in that group of athletes, it would be a great honour and I believe I can do that.”