Felix Auger-Aliassime explained why he was slightly disadvantaged against Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final of the 2025 Dubai Championships.
Auger-Aliassime has enjoyed a sensational start to the 2025 season. In the first two months, he won 16 matches, more than any other player. That’s three more than the players who jointly hold the second place.
The Canadian has also won two titles already, and he had a chance to add this third at the ATP 500 event in Dubai. Auger-Aliassime won three challenging three-setters to reach the final, but Tsitsipas was too strong for him in that final match. The Greek player finally won his maiden ATP 500 trophy.
But Auger-Aliassime wasn’t without chances. In fact, he even had more break points than his opponent. But while Tsitsipas used every other chance that he had, the Canadian player couldn’t use any of his chances. That’s what ultimately cost him the win.
However, there were also other factors in play during the final. Like all the final matches, it was played in the evening. That’s something that Auger-Aliassime didn’t experience until the final match. On the other hand, Tsitsipas played only evening matches in Dubai.
The Canadian player was aware of that ahead of the final, and he wanted to adjust to that early in the match, but maybe also that was the reason why he couldn’t be as effective.
“Maybe not the finals. But maybe the fact that he played evening every match this week, and I was playing at 2 p.m. until yesterday, where I played maybe at 4, I don’t know. Anyway, it was not as late as tonight.”
“Even though tonight is not late, just starting in the dark, it was getting cool. I felt like maybe he was more used to those conditions with the serve especially.”
“I felt like it took me a while to adjust to how the air gets more cool and it’s a bit slower. I think that was something that when I stepped on court, I was like, okay, I need to be ready for that.”
Despite losing in the final, Auger-Aliassime tried to focus on the positives. At the end of the day, he was second-best out of 32 players, which was certainly a positive for him.
“Positive things. There are two players in the finals. 32 at the start of the week. If Tsitsipas is the happiest guy, maybe I’m the second happiest of the week. I take positive things.”
“I see now, okay, if that opportunity comes again or if I play Stefanos now in the coming weeks, how can I do better. For me, honestly, right now, I was just frustrated. I’m a bit sad that I couldn’t find a way.”
Auger-Aliassime will now want to carry the type of form that he had at the start of the season also to the United States. He will compete in the first two ATP Masters 1000 tournaments of the season in Indian Wells and Miami.
