PARIS — The smile came first, then the fist pump, then he pointed to the gray sky with his body language expressing more than Felix Auger-Aliassime could muster with words after the greatest Olympic victory of his tennis life.
It was stirring and sensational, emotional and clinical — Auger-Aliassime’s straight-sets victory over the giant, fourth-seeded Daniil Medvedev on Wednesday in the men’s tennis tournament here.
And it was impressive, not just to his tennis team, to his coaches, but more than even that, to himself. And, yeah, to Canadians, too.
He was so excited after the 6-3, 7-6 win — the first time he had beaten Medvedev in eight career meetings — he could barely get words of elation out of his normally soft-spoken mouth.
And he should have been screaming and dancing and celebrating, except this win just advances him to the fourth round of the Olympic tournament. With one more win, Auger-Aliassime is assured of playing for a medal here.
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This day and this match smacked of Olympic competition for a sport that isn’t always considered very Olympian. The Olympics can be about finding new levels for the best of athletes, discovering magnificence within yourself and maybe doing things you’ve never done before.
For Auger-Aliassime, who has struggled for most of the past two years on the professional tour, losing his confidence and some of himself along the way, he discovered a level against Medvedev on Wednesday that he has never before known.
And right before our eyes, he grew up as a tennis player and an athlete — going punch for punch, serve for serve, with the great Medvedev, a one-time Grand Slam champion, who is representing as an Individual Neutral Athlete, which is what Russians who don’t have teams are called here.
Being neutral or not, the Russian without a country uniform was handed his lunch for the most part in an aggressive and impressive win for the Canadian. It was the kind of victory, like the Games itself, that comes around maybe once every four years.
In his career, he has now beaten Novak Djokovic once, Roger Federer once and Rafael Nadal once. But until Wednesday, he had never beaten Medvedev and slaying this tennis giant at any time is no easy feat.
Auger-Aliassime did not lose a single service game in the match. He broke Medvedev’s big serve in the eighth game of the first set, giving him the lead.
Both players held serve in the entire second set that went to tiebreaker, with Auger-Aliassime taking advantage of a double fault on the ninth point of the tiebreak, putting the Canadian in position for his victory.
“On the court today, I wasn’t thinking about the Olympics,” said Auger-Aliassime, who over the years had been great and not so great playing for Canada. “I was thinking of every match here this week. I came in with the best focus and the best intensity I can bring and it was an effort physically, point after point.”
“What’s the most you can ask from yourself?” Auger-Aliassime continued. “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.”
With one more win, Auger-Aliassime assures himself an opportunity to play for a medal here, which wasn’t exactly expected from a Canadian tennis team that has struggled in many ways here.
The women, Bianca Andreescu and Leylah Fernandez, quickly exited in singles. Milos Raonic was eliminated in his only match. The highly rated doubles team of Gaby Dabrowski and Fernandez were knocked out Wednesday.
Later on Wednesday, Dabrowski and Aliassime will come back on this sweaty day and play a second match in mixed doubles.
Auger-Aliassime fought through the 33C heat, his opponent, a rain delay and the power that is Medvedev to bring a crowd on a stadium court to chant “Felix, Felix, Felix!” throughout much of the second set and the inspiring Canadian seemed inspired by the pro-Felix crowd.
If Auger-Aliassime ever has played better than this, or more importantly smarter than this — he really went to school on Medvedev’s backhand and the strategy of using drop shots on clay — no one could remember seeing it. The Olympics can do that to some athletes.
“I adore this competition and playing for Canada,” he said. “It’s all a big bonus. Today, I’m really happy.
“The moment (when he hit a cross-court service winner to take the second-set tiebreaker), how can I explain it? There was so much happiness, so many beautiful emotions on the court. Something I dreamed about on the court.”
And then he walked away with a purely Olympic tennis moment to have to deal with.
“I have to go,” he said, “I have mixed doubles to prepare for.”
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