Finally for Felix: First title comes in Rotterdam

At long last, Felix Auger-Aliassime is a title winner on the ATP Tour.

It’s not so much that Auger-Aliassime is 21 years old; 21 isn’t exactly an unusual age at which a player lifts a trophy for the first time. It’s that it took him nine finals to finally get the job done. Yes, at 21 the Canadian had already been to eight finals heading into this season. And, yes, he had lost them all.

Auger-Aliassime made number nine the magic moment, and he did it in emphatic fashion. The world No. 9 dominated top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-2 on Sunday afternoon to triumph at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament. Auger-Aliassime rolled in one hour and 18 minutes while firing seven aces without double-faulting, dropping a mere seven points in nine service games, and never facing a single break point.

The third seed broke Tsitsipas in the opening game of the match and never looked back. He seized a break right away in set two, as well, before earning a double-break for 4-1. With a comfortable margin in hand, Auger-Aliassime avoided the pressure that otherwise would have come as he served for his maiden title. A love hold at 5-2 wrapped things up in style in Rotterdam, where he had made his ATP main-draw debut at the 2018 event.

“It has not been the smoothest road since my first final three years ago,” Auger-Aliassime reflected. “It is an amazing day for me to get my first title and especially here. I played my first ATP main draw here [four] ago, so it is right (that) I won my first title here.

“I have a lot of good memories playing here in front of you, so thank you for making it a special week for me that I will remember for the rest of my life. It is the happiest day of my career and hopefully it is the first of many to come.”

“He played a really good match, producing really good shots and serving well the whole match,” Tsitsipas praised. “He played very well.”

Playing well has never been a problem for Auger-Aliassime. Perhaps only the mental block of losing so many finals without winning one was holding him back from reaching the absolute highest levels of tennis–such as Grand Slam finals and Nitto ATP Finals participation.

Mental block no more. The Canadian could be off to the races.