This is the first surprise of the tournament: One of the favorites, the Canadian tennis talent Felix Auger-Aliassime, number 10 in the world rankings, has already been eliminated in the first round. With cleverness and experience Fabio Fognini shoots him out of the tournament in Paris.
"Firstly, things don't happen and secondly, things don't happen", that's what many will have thought after this match, many of his fans, his staff, his entourage and he himself. Because on paper, and this must be said clearly, everything spoke for a clear victory for the Canadian. Felix Auger-Aliassime has played his way up from the top 20 to the top 10 in the world since 2019 - 2020 and has backed this up with four title wins in 2022. He's young and he's in form. Fabio Fognini has pretty much had the opposite development. While the Italian was still ranked in the top 10 of the world rankings in 2019, he has been constantly falling down the rankings since 2020 and is currently ranked 130th in the ATP world rankings. And at 36 years old, he should actually be inferior to the 22-year-old Auger-Aliassime in terms of stamina and fitness. But today, Monday, it became clear that fitness, talent and youth do not always guarantee victory. Fabio Fognini played with a lot of cleverness and sovereignty. He was able to avoid numerous traps set by Felix Auger. Several times he parried stop balls with impressive aplomb. In addition, he placed fabulous winners. Today, experience won against youthful energy. Felix Auger-Aliassime had no chance against the experienced and accomplished Italian, who swept the young Canadian talent off the court in three sets.
Players | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Felix Auger-Aliassime (10) |  | 4 | 4 | 3 | – | – |
Fabio Fognini (130) |  | 6 | 6 | 6 | – | – |
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