A MAJOR PROBLEM

First-round exit to unheralded player continues a worrying trend for Auger-Aliassime

- ROSIE DIMANNO

These have been tumultuous times for Félix Auger-Aliassime, a whirlwind crossed by a maelstrom, careening on an emotional rollercoaster.

Bronzed at the Paris Olympics (11 matches in seven days) and immediately thereafter bounced in the first round of the National Bank Open in hometown Montreal. Gentlemanly cool and polite in the face of an umpire’s grievously wrong call on elimination match point last week in Cincinnati, an obstinate verdict so deplorable that players rushed onto social media to object — including Novak Djokovic, who described the episode as “embarrassing.”

Auger-Aliassime made a ton of new fans from that affair. He is immensely likeable and clearly a man of tremendous character.

But the past fortnight could also be viewed as a microcosm of the Canadian’s 28-20 season — from the high note of making his first Masters 1000 final in Madrid to the low notes of disastrous collapses on the Grand Slam calendar: opening match elimination at Wimbledon in June; opening-match elimination at the U.S. Open on Tuesday, his fifth first-round bounce in his last seven Slams.

Defeated in straight sets by 18year-old Czech Jakub Menšík, world ranked No. 65, in the last major of the year.

It was, by any measure, a dreadful performance by the lanky 24-year-old from Montreal, submitting meekly at Flushing Meadows: 6-2, 6-4, 6-2. The same Slam where Auger-Aliassime has enjoyed historical success, a semifinalist in 2021. But now one and done at back-to back majors.