- Carlos Alcaraz kicks off French Open Tennis campaign with straight-set win over Londero
- Ricky’s picks for Day 2 at the French Open Tennis, including Rafa Nadal vs. Thompson
- Upset Sunday: Garbiñe Muguruza, Ons Jabeur Both Fall in Roland Garros Openers
- Roland Garros Men’s and Women’s Draws and Schedule for Monday, May 23, 2022
- Roland Garros Men’s and Women’s Draws and Schedule for Sunday, May 22, 2022
- ATP, WTA Strip Wimbledon of Ranking Points
- Zverev: Stefanos Tsitsipas is Favorite in Bottom Half of Roland Garros Draw
- Roland Garros Men’s and Women’s Draws: Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev in Bottom Quarter
- French Open draw ceremony produces a Djokovic-Nadal quarter, Alcaraz also in top half
- Roland Garros Men’s and Women’s Draws: Osaka vs. Anisimova in First Round
- World No. 2 Barbora Krejcikova Signs with Fila
- The 20-Year Grand Slam Streak of Feliciano Lopez Has Come to an End
- Roland Garros Qualifying Draws and Schedule for Thursday, May 19th
- Roland Garros Qualifying Draws and Schedule for Wednesday, May 18th
- Gael Monfils Withdraws from Roland Garros
Title at last for Auger-Aliassime, who triumphs in Rotterdam Tennis over Tsitsipas
- Updated: February 13, 2022

By Ricky Dimon
At long last, Felix Auger-Aliassime is a title winner on the ATP Tour.
It’s not so much that Auger-Aliassime is 21 years old; 21 isn’t exactly an unusual age at which a player lifts a trophy for the first time. It’s that it took him nine finals to finally get the job done. Yes, at 21 the Canadian had already been to eight finals heading into this season. And, yes, he had lost them all.
Auger-Aliassime made number nine the magic moment, and he did it in emphatic fashion. The world No. 9 dominated top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-2 on Sunday afternoon to triumph at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament. Auger-Aliassime rolled in one hour and 18 minutes while firing seven aces without double-faulting, dropping a mere seven points in nine service games, and never facing a single break point.
The third seed broke Tsitsipas in the opening game of the match and never looked back. He seized a break right away in set two, as well, before earning a double-break for 4-1. With a comfortable margin in hand, Auger-Aliassime avoided the pressure that otherwise would have come as he served for his maiden title. A love hold at 5-2 wrapped things up in style in Rotterdam, where he had made his ATP main-draw debut at the 2018 event.

“It has not been the smoothest road since my first final three years ago,” Auger-Aliassime reflected. “It is an amazing day for me to get my first title and especially here. I played my first ATP main draw here [four] ago, so it is right (that) I won my first title here.
“I have a lot of good memories playing here in front of you, so thank you for making it a special week for me that I will remember for the rest of my life. It is the happiest day of my career and hopefully it is the first of many to come.”
“He played a really good match, producing really good shots and serving well the whole match,” Tsitsipas praised. “He played very well.”
Playing well has never been a problem for Auger-Aliassime. Perhaps only the mental block of losing so many finals without winning one was holding him back from reaching the absolute highest levels of tennis–such as Grand Slam finals and Nitto ATP Finals participation.
Mental block no more. The Canadian could be off to the races.
Ricky contributes to10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on twitter at @Dimonator.