On the night before probably the biggest tennis match of his life, Félix Auger-Aliassime was tucked in bed and lights out at 10:30 p.m.
Late Friday night, it was just lights out at the U.S. Open for the gallant Canadian, and fade to black. Outshone by the best player on the planet.
Which may have been what just about everyone had predicted, yet far from the slaughter many had forecast.
Auger-Aliassime pushed Jannik Sinner to four sets, pushed him to the brink of a dropped second set repeatedly. But 1-for-10 on breakpoints was a killer.
So many junctures where the 25-year-old from Montreal had the Italian on the ropes and couldn’t tie off the slipknot.
With the exception of Carlos Alcaraz, nobody is in Jannik Sinner’s tennis orbit right now, writes Rosie DiManno.
Yuki Iwamura/APHe’ll long ponder what might have been in this semifinal, the unforced errors — just shy of doubling what Sinner racked up, 41-22 — and the inability, chance after chance after chance, to lay a body blow on an opponent who looked atypically vulnerable. Put another way, of course, Sinner out-clutched his challenger in the formidable style of a World No. 1.
“Future will tell, future will tell,’’ Auger-Aliassime when asked at his press conference afterward how close he now feels to Sinner’s level of tennis. “I don’t want to make too many predictions. I just want to take a moment to soak in the tournament and everything that was good.
“You obviously build your future with what’s good in you, then you try to improve a little bit, step by step. But to say how close my level is, we were fighting out there. I was going toe to toe at times, some sets dominating. The future will tell how close I am.’’
If there’s any solace to be winkled out of the match, it’s that, with the exception of Carlos Alcaraz, nobody is in Sinner’s tennis orbit right now.
So it’s the defending champion who’s booked another Grand Slam final against World No. 2 Alcaraz, who earlier bushwhacked Novak Djokovic in straight sets. And frankly that’s the epic rematch everybody was salivating for, even though the celebrity-studded crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium was solidly in the Canadian’s corner. They love Canadians in the Big Apple.
When the disappointment subsides for Auger-Aliassime, what should be remembered is that this major also signalled not just a career comeback for FAA but somewhat of a resurgence for Canadian tennis, on the heels of teenage sensation Victoria Mboko’s stunning triumph in the Masters 1000 in Montreal last month, and a championship victory earlier Friday in doubles for Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe over the top-seeded tandem of Taylor Townsend and Katerina Siniakova.
Sinner lost only two sets en route to Sunday’s final — and both were to Canadians, Denis Shapovalov nicking the Italian in the third round at Flushing Meadows. That was also the last time Sinner was broken until Auger-Aliassime came along. It is the mark of genius, though, that Sinner could manoeuvre around all but one of the openings he allowed.
Sinner has now made the final in five straight Slams, all four this year, claiming three trophies, his single failure a match point collapse at the hands of Alcaraz in the French Open. Only two players have beaten Sinner in 2025: Alcaraz, who ended his 26-match win streak in Slams, and Alexander Bublik at the Halle Open.
If there was a pivotal bungle for Auger-Aliassime in this confrontation, it occurred in the fourth game of the fourth set when he blew three break point opportunities in a row — 1-for-8, 1-for-9, and 1-for-10 on an 80 mph second serve. And of course Sinner, scuttling away from going down 3-1, in a frame where Auger-Aliassime was an astonishing 0-for-five on break points despite actually being the better player, immediately thereafter converted the only break he’d need to seize the set and the match in three hours and 21 minutes: 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
A damn sight better than his 6-0, 6-2 quarterfinal flame-out to Sinner in Cincinnati a fortnight ago.
About that. “He’s a completely different player,’’ said Sinner of Auger-Aliassime, who actually came into New York with a career-winning record against the ginger and preternaturally pale 24-year-old from San Candido, Italy. “He was serving much better, hitting every shot much better, so it was a very tough match today. I saw him maybe a little bit injured at some point. Hopefully it’s nothing bad. I wish him only the best. He’s an amazing player and an amazing person.’’
The shotmaking on this evening ranged from brilliant to wayward to just plain weird, as Auger-Aliassime rallied from a flat second set and momentum constantly shifted, both players dripping with sweat, each labouring from episodes of physical discomfort — Sinner taking a medical break for treatment of an abs issue, Auger-Aliassime in the third set looking to have a problem with his left leg.
“I’m OK,’’ he told reporters later. “I don’t really want to focus on that.’’
He scored immense points, at least, with the audience, returning to the semifinal at Flushing Meadows for the first time since 2021.
“I think my story was a little bit different this time. I think people have known my name around tennis. It was, like, a good story as long as it went on. It stopped tonight. But I’m very pleased to come back home knowing that the crowd wanted me to go on and to keep playing well and to keep enjoying myself on the court.’’
Which he clearly did, more expressive in the big moment than is usual for him, erupting in joyful screeches on several winners. He had 35 winners, by the way, to Sinner’s 33. But he couldn’t take advantage of Sinner’s far less assured second serve and was just 50 per cent for points won on his own second effort.
Jannik Sinner embraces Félix Auger-Aliassime after defeating him in four sets at the U.S. Open semifinal.
Sarah Stier/Getty ImagesThe crucial missteps and missed shots wrote the epitaph.
“I can explain all of them to you, but it’s over. I got caught by a slow second serve,” Auger-Aliassime said of the beginning of the fourth set, when he could have broken early. “Kind of pulled the trigger on a forehand. Could have went in. If it goes in, maybe I’m in a fifth set, maybe not.
“I don’t have any regrets. I played my way. I played my game. You kind of live and die with your choices, you know?’’
He’ll nevertheless leave New York with a live ranking of No. 13, 14 spots higher than when he started, knocking off World No. 3 Alexander Zverev, No. 15 Andrey Rublev and No. 8 Alex De Minaur.
Next up, not tennis but a wedding. Love Felix.
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