At the age of 15 Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime has made history at the prestigious Eddie Herr International Open after a sensational 2015.
The Eddie Herr International is one of the biggest competition on the junior circuit. Held at the IMG Academy in Florida, past winners of the under 18 tournament include David Nalbandian, Andy Roddick, Jeremy Chardy and Marin Cilic. Now joining the list is Auger-Aliassime, who has become the youngest winner of the event at the age of 15.
In the final of the tournament he played Australian fourth seed Alex de Minaur. Minuar is currently ranked 21st in the Junior rankings and reached the semifinals at this year’s junior US Open. The Canadian was on the verge of losing the match after facing three match points in the deciding set. Despite facing the adversity, Auger-Aliassime triumphantly battled back to clinch the match 6-3, 6-7 (6) 7-6 (3) to secure the title. In the third round he also saved match points before beating Bulgaria’s Alexandar Lazarov. Following his triumph is Florida, Auger-Aliassime spoke with Collette Lewis from Zoo Tennis.
“When I had match points (against), it was just like, ‘Okay, that’s it, you have to go get your points, one at a time,’ ” he told Zoo Tennis exclusively.
“I was like, ‘I’ll do it again, I’ve already done it. I know I can do it.’ Win the next point, the second point and the one after that. He didn’t do anything wrong, he didn’t miss, he didn’t give me the points.”
The achievement is the latest historic accomplishment in the youngster’s career. In march at the age of 14, Auger-Aliassime became the youngest player to reach a Challenger main draw at the Banque Nationale de Drummondville before withdrawing from the event due to injury. Despite his disappointing end in Drummondville, the teenager made up for it a few months later at a Challenger event in Granby, Canada. He defeated world No.205 Dorian King to reach the quarter-final of the tournament. At the tournament he became the youngest player to win a main draw match at the age of 14 when he defeated Andrew Whittington in the first round.
At 760th in the world, Auger-Aliassime is the youngest player ranked inside the top 800 and is only one of two 15-year-old’s ranked inside the top 1000. The other is France’s Rayane Roumane at 994th. Last month he played two Futures tournaments in Chile, reaching the quarter-final at both of them. This year the Canadian has played 9 main draw matches on the pro circuit with a win-loss of 6-3.
