Felix Auger-Aliassime was unable to complete his first round match at the Australian Open.
Auger-Aliassime enjoyed a resurgent 2025 season, with the Canadian winning three titles and reaching the US Open semifinals.
This enabled him to achieve a new career-high ranking of world number five, and expectations were high for Auger-Aliassime coming into 2026.
Auger-Aliassime appeared to have practiced well with Jannik Sinner prior to his first round match, but things did not pan out in the way that he would have liked.
Felix Auger-Aliassime provides injury update after Australian Open retirement
Auger-Aliassime was playing Portuguese Nuno Borges in his first round match, and all appeared to be well for the seventh seed after he won the first set 6-3.
However, after losing both the second and third set, Auger-Aliassime spoke to the physio before retiring from the match, therefore sending Borges into the second round.
This means that Auger-Aliassime is the highest ranked player to exit the Australian Open so far, and he was asked about what happened in his post-match press conference.
“I’m okay, but I just started cramping at the start of the third set,” said Auger-Aliassime. “Yeah, it became very difficult to be competitive at this level.”
After revealing that he was cramping, Auger-Aliassime was questioned over whether this was related to the heat or if it was something else.
“I don’t have all the answers now,” answered the world number eight. “I’m trying to be very professional at everything I do, prepare well. I love this sport, and I love to play. So I try to do everything I can in my control to get ready.
“Obviously it hurts even more, because you know, if I was self-aware and I was, like, well, I wasn’t really ready or I wasn’t doing everything, then you have to be honest with yourself. But even with being honest with myself, I’m not totally finding the reasons why this is happening. It wasn’t happening in the past, so I’ll have to figure it out.”
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Felix Auger-Aliassime reveals when he last cramped like that
This is likely to be a huge disappointment for Auger-Aliassime, who would have been looking to continue on the progress he made last year at the first major tournament of 2026.
As he continued to be probed over his injury, Auger-Aliassime was asked when the last time he felt that way on court.
While Auger-Aliassime named his recent US Open semifinal against Sinner, he admitted that this is the first time that it’s ever happened to him so early on in a tournament.
“Yeah, especially this early in the tournament,” said Auger-Aliassime. You know, if I had struggles with Jannik in US Open, we were all the way to the semifinals, third set. But, yeah, I can’t recall ever in my life this early in a tournament, this early in a match.”
Who will win the 2026 Australian Open?
Auger-Aliassime’s exit from the Australian Open has created an opening in the men’s singles draw, with Brisbane International champion Daniil Medvedev now the highest ranked player remaining in his quarter.
After retiring from his first round match in Melbourne, Auger-Aliassime will now have three weeks away from the match court before returning at the Rotterdam Open.
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