Felix Auger-Aliassime has suggested the gap between him and Jannik Sinner is not as far away as some might think after suffering another loss to the Italian.
Sinner defeated Auger-Aliassime to win the Paris Masters, marking the new World No. 1’s third straight win against the Canadian.
Auger-Aliassime will now need to head to Metz to try and confirm his place in the ATP Finals in Turin, where he needs a semi-final appearance at the French tournament.
The World No. 8 has revealed exactly how far off he feels he is from Sinner’s level after his latest defeat.
Felix Auger-Aliassime makes bold claim about reaching Jannik Sinner’s level in the future
Despite his straight-sets defeat to Sinner, Auger-Aliassime was positive about his chances of challenging the Italian in the future.
“No, for me, it’s not a huge gap,” said the Auger-Aliassime positively during his Paris Masters press conference.
“I’m getting closer every match we actually play one against the other,” he added. “This match was more tight. At the US Open, I managed to win a set and lost the first and the fourth in a difficult way.”
“But what we saw today was that it was close. Everything was on the quality of his serve, I think, the quality of his return game, as well. Hats off to him on that point.”
“There’s a part of me that says, well, there are moments where I could play better. I’m still a bit sour for some moments of the match.”
Felix Auger-Aliassime shares the ‘turning point’ in his defeat to Jannik Sinner
Auger-Aliassime cited Sinner’s return game as what he struggled with most during his Paris Masters defeat.
“Well, it’s quite balanced between him returning well. He’s returning long,” explained Auger-Aliassime in his press conference.
“You think that the timing of the ball is very good, and he’s winning two games and there is two faults on my forehand where I have some hesitation,” he added.
“I don’t know if I should play on the sideline or if I should play on the center. So that’s one thing. That’s one turning point. And then I managed to be back on track during the second set.”
“For the second set, I worked well. I managed to have two breakpoints. Then there is 30-All or deuce, and I think that it’s going to turn in my favor. I won a lot of tiebreaks recently.
“More in indoors, so I thought I could win the tiebreak, but then I made two errors. There’s no way I can change that afterward at that level of tennis.”
Auger-Aliassime’s last victory against Sinner came at the Cincinnati Open in 2024, when the Canadian toppled the Italian in three sets.
