STOKE POGES, UK | An exhibition tournament like The Boodles, which Félix Auger-Aliassime is playing not far from London this week, is nothing more than an official ATP event.
There are no points at stake in the overall standings. The scholarship – usually very generous – is already insured. The participants are therefore on site to hone their game in a more relaxed atmosphere than usual.
Félix and Russia’s Andrey Rublev showed it on Wednesday. On the pitch, smiles were more numerous than at an ATP game. The opponent’s good shots were often praised.
“What did you do?”
Most importantly, Rublev didn’t fail to tease Auger-Aliassime when the latter passed what seemed an easy ball in the second set of that encounter lost 7-6 and 7-6 to the Quebecer.
“But what did you do last night?” the Russian threw at him, laughing… implying that “FAA” probably went to bed late.
Auger-Aliassime smiled, but took revenge on the next point. Especially since, in his opinion, he was “frozen” because he had thought “that”. [Rublev] that he would go to the other side or that he would attempt the drop shot.
“I told him he must have been practicing his serves a lot lately to see how he serves,” Felix explained, laughing.
They get along very well
However, don’t look for animosity where there is none, the two opponents get along very well. “We’ve known each other for a long time!” said the 12th in the world.
In addition to Rublev, it was also who decorated the “FAA”. with a new nicknamelast year.
While we thought it was because Félix was very articulate, the latter rather believes the Russian called him ‘Oxford’ because he was ‘dressed like the best in class’ during the ATP Finals in Turin.
In short, Felix didn’t care this time either.