Felix Auger-Aliassime was expected to be one of the challengers for the 2026 US Open title, but his campaign came to a low-key end in the second round as he struggled physically during his defeat to Karen Khachanov.
The Canadian has had a good season as he reached the quarter-finals at both the French Open and Wimbledon, earning him the third seed status at the season-ending Grand Slam.
Having reached the semi-finals 12 months ago at Flushing Meadows, many tipped him to do even better this year, but that won’t be the case as he suffered a 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 2-6, 2-6 defeat to Khachanov.
After a good start, Auger-Aliassime started to feel ill in the second set, and his condition just never improved.
“I mean it’s tough to talk about anything else than how I felt physically after a set and a half I just couldn’t yeah couldn’t … [didn’t] feel well and was dizzy and seeing spots and yeah, couldn’t recover,” he explained.
“I thought maybe it would pass, but it didn’t. So that’s the end of the tournament for me and now back to the drawing board.”
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When asked if he was feeling sick before the match, he replied: “No. I’ve never felt quite like that. I’ve had cramps before I felt, you know, tired towards the end of matches, but in a normal way.
“This was abnormal a little bit and there were no signs in the last couple of days and no signs this morning as well. So yeah, I’m not sure. I’m going to run some tests and see what comes out of it.”
Despite going down 0-4 in the fourth set, Auger-Aliassime didn’t want to retire.
“When I lost the third set, no, because I was thinking maybe I take a break, maybe in 20 minutes I feel better, but obviously it wasn’t the case,” the world No 4 said.
“Not much you can do, you know, hydration, supplementation, but then if it doesn’t go away, I mean, the guy keeps on winning points.
“So, by the time it was three, three love, four love, I was okay, let’s finish the match. Let’s see. But I didn’t want to retire at that point.
He added: “Karen’s a great player. Look, I cannot beat I mean, him or or anybody in this draw feeling the way I felt today. So, if I cannot move, I mean, we’re not talking about tennis here.
“It’s unfortunate. I wish we were talking about tennis. I wish that I had been beaten and we were talking about what I could have done better tennis-wise, but it’s not the case.”
