Summary: Felix Auger-Aliassime’s first Olympic tennis events did not end the way he wanted them to. But the world’s youngest top 20 player has perspective on the experience that would be admirable in someone twice his age. His early singles upset loss was partly about his serve having less than its usual impact. That’s tennis, it happens. But Auger-Aliassime corrected his service nicely when he moved on to his first-ever mixed doubles match alongside Gabriela Dabrowski. Imagine trying an event for the first time, at the Olympics. Auger-Aliassime absorbed huge lessons from his new situation. The geometry, the mixed doubles strategy of forcing unlikely angles on opponents, he soaked it up in a hurry. But the main takeaway for Auger-Aliassime was that, while some professional athletes are less enthusiastic about competing at the Olympics, he was all-in for Tokyo, if only because it met his own personal sense of what’s right. Auger-Aliassime tells Anastasia that there’s no question, the essence of the Olympics is that every country sends its best athletes. When the country asks, you go. And meantime...Paris is only three years away. Should be a better outing, even at the ripe old age of 23.
