Felix Auger-Aliassime has made an impressive start to the 2025 season, despite losing the Dubai Tennis Championships final.
Auger-Aliassime is currently third in the ATP race, only sitting behind Australian Open finalists Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev.
The Canadian was in his third final of the year in Dubai, but Auger-Aliassime was beaten by Stefanos Tsitsipas on this occasion.
Although he was disappointed in his own performance, Auger-Aliassime praised Tsitsipas for a change in his game that he noticed.
Felix Auger-Aliassime says what year Roger Federer played his best tennis
After losing in the Dubai Tennis Championships final to Tsitsipas, Auger-Aliassime answered questions about the week in his post-match press conference.
When asked about what he hopes for going forward, the world number 18 explained that tennis can never be perfect and suggested that Roger Federer in 2005 and 2006 was the only anomaly.
“Look, day by day, we’ll see. I’m traveling to Los Angeles tomorrow, getting ready for Indian Wells tournament,” said Auger-Aliassime. “As all the players, we’ll meet there. First Masters of the year.
“It’s been a great first two months. I can’t complain. Tennis is never perfect. Maybe Roger in 2005, ‘6. Never perfect. You try to improve all the time. You try to learn from matches like this. We’ll see. But I’m positive I’ll have my chances to win big trophies this year.”
Federer retired at the Laver Cup in 2022, with Auger-Aliassime one of few players to have a winning record against the 20-time Grand Slam champion.
Their one and only meeting came at the Halle Open, where Federer is a record 10-time champion, in 2021.
On this occasion, a 20-year-old Auger-Aliassime beat Federer en route to the semi-finals, in what ended up being the penultimate professional tournament of the Swiss’ career.
What did Roger Federer achieve in 2005 and 2006?
The two years that Auger-Aliassime mentioned are highly regarded as two of the most dominant years of Federer’s career.
Federer was so dominant that he only lost nine of his 182 matches throughout the entire two years, and won five Grand Slam titles during that time.
In 2005, he did not lose a single straight set match in a record that Federer held until Jannik Sinner matched it last year.
| Roger Federer in 2005/06 | 2005 | 2006 | 2005/06 |
| Win-loss Record | 81-4 (95%) | 92-5 (95%) | 173-9 (95%) |
| Number of Titles | 11 | 12 | 23 |
| Grand Slam titles | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Masters 1000 Titles | 4 | 4 | 8 |
| ATP Finals Titles | Lost in the final | 1 | 1 |
During Auger-Aliassime’s breakthrough onto the main ATP Tour, he actually received some comparisons to Federer.
While he has not been able to quite live up to that, the 24-year-old is enjoying a strong start to the season and has hit more aces than anyone else so far in 2025.
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