Felix Auger-Aliassime expressed his disappointment after he suffered a heartbreaking five-set loss in the quarterfinal clash against Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon on Tuesday. The 25-year-old Canadian said he had a lot of belief until the very end.
The veteran Serbian registered a thrilling 7-6(10), 3-6, 6-3, 6-7(4), 7-6(10-4) victory against Aliassime..
Both players had to battle for five hours and 15 minutes in a match, that saw the impetus shift like a wave. However, Djokovic had the last laugh and qualified for the semifinals.
“Amazing fight, amazing battle with a legend of our sport. It is what it is,” Auger-Aliassime, who lost in a final-set tie-break, said. “Obviously it’s tough for me. Quarters in Paris, here. I had other chances in my career where tight matches like this didn’t go my way. I’ll have to see what I can do so it goes my way the next time. For now, I can be proud of the fight and then I move on, move on to what’s next.”
The Canadian admitted he lost a bit of focus in the third set against Djokovic and went on to eventually lose that set.
“I had a lot of belief. I don’t think belief was a problem. I think after one set all, it was just this one game in the third set, I lost focus. After more than two-and-a-half hours of being very focused with him, I lost a little bit my focus,” Auger-Aliassime said. “Fourth set I was fortunate to come back. He also had lost focus, a dip, to give me a chance to come back in the fourth set. Then I thought I played good, good tie-break.
“But yeah, I think in the end he proves again that he’s good when he needs to. He’s solid, more solid than I was, when he needs to.”
The youngster hailed Djokovic for bringing his best in the tight moments of the game.
“You just feel like in tie-breaks or tight moments, either he serves well or he makes you play the extra shot. Just keeps you in a position where you can’t attack him, but he neutralises you until he waits for a mistake,” Auger-Aliassime said. “So yeah, his game style, it’s not my natural game style. I’m more trying to play forward. But I’ll have to learn how to manage that, when to go forward, when to be a bit more solid in a way.”
Djokovic will face Jannik Sinner on Friday.
