PARIS – There is a price to be paid for playing 10 tennis matches over six days on the red clay of Roland Garros, which Canadian tennis star Felix Auger-Aliassime will readily admit.
But the reward for the pain and exhaustion was tantalizing enough for the world’s 19th-ranked player singles player to persevere.
The 23-year-old from Montreal collected the first of two potential prizes early Friday evening, when he teamed with mixed doubles partner Gabriela Dabrowski to win the bronze-medal match. The pair defeated Demi Schuurs and Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands, 6-3, 7-6 — in a match that ended up far closer than it needed to be.
The Dutch pair managed to make it interesting, despite falling into an 0-3 hole in the second set, after battling back to 4-4 before the Canadians rallied back.
Any exhaustion from Auger-Aliassime was replaced with a wide smile and hands raised in the air as he finally won an Olympic medal after days of grueling matches.
The victory was Canada’s 10th of the Games, and only Canada’s second medal in tennis to pair with the gold Daniel Nestor and Sebastien Lareau captured at the Sydney 2020 Games.
As deflated as he was after getting thumped by world No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz in the men’s singles semi-final earlier Friday, Auger-Aliassime pressed forward for the medal match that began less than two hours after the gutting singles defeat.
And there is still hope for another Auger-Aliassime medal in the men’s singles competition, as his bronze-medal match scheduled for Saturday. Canada wasn’t expected to win a medal here let alone two, so it was a breakthrough moment. He is scheduled to take on the loser of the other semi-final between Serbian great Novak Djokovic and Lorenzo Musetti.
As thrilled as he was with earning a medal, there was a humbling side to Auger-Aliassime’s day in that lopsided semi-final loss, a tough blow mentally given his ongoing desire to be a factor among the game’s best.
“I just couldn’t find a way to be comfortable in any pattern, any position, whether it was trying to dominate the forehand, cross court or change of direction,” Auger-Aliassime said. “Every aspect. The movement, the defence … I was dominated. I need to get much better than this. I don’t have the solutions right now. There’s not much more to say.”
To his credit, Auger-Aliassime deleted the memories from his competitive hard drive and rallied to team with Dabrowski in their manhandling of the Dutch duo.
That’s a credit to Auger-Aliassime’s fitness and competitiveness given the gruelling regimen of playing in two events in the already condensed Olympic schedule. To that end, Auger-Aliassime knew he had to quickly shift from the strategy in play facing a young, elite fireballer in singles to working with the doubles savvy Gabrowski to tear apart the Dutch so easily.
The schedule helped in that regard as the singles matches were played earlier in the day followed by the doubles, which obviously require less court movement. And despite the grind – and obvious exhaustion – Auger-Aliassime said he was holding up fine.
“(It’s) challenging, but I was happy with how I felt this morning, to be honest,” Auger-Aliassime said about recovering from Thursday, his physically most demanding day in the competition. “I was ready to go. It’s just level wise, to be honest. My recovery wasn’t so bad overall. It’s just tennis wise.”