LONDON — Canadian tennis star Felix Auger-Aliassime punched his ticket to the Wimbledon quarter-finals on Sunday, but the third seed wasn’t just talking about his win over Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina — he was fired up about a rule he believes needs to go.
The 25-year-old had his opponent on the ropes in the fourth set, holding two match points while serving, when Davidovich Fokina called for a medical timeout after twisting his ankle. When play resumed, Auger-Aliassime dropped his serve and was pulled into a fifth and final set before ultimately closing out the match 6-7(4) 7-6(6) 6-3 6-7(2) 6-1.
The tension didn’t end at the net. The two players exchanged words after their handshake, though Auger-Aliassime declined to reveal the specifics of that conversation.
“The interactions between him and I, I don’t want to get into that. If he wants to come in here and talk about it, he can. But he knows my opinion,” Auger-Aliassime said.
What he was willing to talk about was the rule itself, and he didn’t hold back.
“What I can say, though, is that I think the rule has to change. I think that obviously as long as the rule is like that, a player will use it to their advantage,” he said.
Auger-Aliassime went on to lay out what he believes a fairer system would look like: “I think that it’s very simple: if you’re hurt bad while the game’s going on… in the middle of the game, the opponent is serving, the shot clock is on, basically when you’re hurt bad, you’re forfeiting every point until you can call the physio. If the physio helps you recover, you play your service game. If you’re hurt bad, then you retire.”
He then made his feelings crystal clear: “But to stop in the middle of an opponent’s service game and to be able to call the physio, I think that’s a disgrace of a rule. I don’t see any other sport where you can do that. I mark my words. It’s a disgrace of a rule.”
Next up for Auger-Aliassime is a quarter-final matchup against seven-time Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic — a prospect that has the Canadian reflecting on just how remarkable his next opponent’s career has been.
“I can only say good things about Novak because, I think as a kid I didn’t appreciate it as much, but now I’m a player, the load of work he’s done over the years, I mean, I’m not even near any of that. Just to think about it, it’s crazy,” he said.
