Felix Auger-Aliassime confessed that it had been a “very strange week” in Madrid after he benefitted from the withdrawals and retirements of three different players. The world No. 35 is through to his first Masters 1000 final having played just three full matches. Jiri Lehecka and Jakub Mensik retired while playing Auger-Aliassime and Jannik Sinner pulled out ahead of their quarter-final.
Auger-Aliassime’s semi-final match against Lehecka was over almost as quickly as it had started when the Czech star was forced to retire after 33 minutes. Lehecka called the physio at 3-3 in the first set and received an off-court medical time out. He returned and continued the match but only managed to play three more points before falling on the court and retiring with lower back pain.
It was the third time this tournament that Auger-Aliassime advanced off the back of one of his rivals’ injuries. The Canadian got a walkover into the semis when top seed Sinner pulled out of the tournament a day before they were due to face off in the quarter-final. And during their third-round match on Monday, Mensik retired while 1-6 0-1 down.
“It’s crazy. I don’t know if it’s ever happened to a player before. It’s kind of a weird situation to be in on my part. I mean, it’s never happened to me in my career so far. Like a withdrawal or walkover or retirement of this sort and back-to-back like this,” Auger-Aliassime told Tennis TV immediately after Lehecka retired on Friday night.
Taking to X (formerly known as Twitter) after coming off the court, the former world No. 6 wrote: “Very strange week full of unique circumstances but for now all my thoughts go to Jiri and everyone else currently struggling with injury. I know everyone will be back in due time. All I can do is focus on the battle ahead.”
Auger-Aliassime later elaborated on Lehecka’s retirement in his post-match press conference. “I mean, yeah, I have never been in this situation, so not much to do on my side. Obviously feeling bad for the players that are dealing with injuries right now. Jiri, it was tough to see him go down like this today,” he explained.
“He’s a guy I practice with often. I have played him one time in Australia. We get along well. He’s a good guy. Yeah, I wish him all the best. It was tough to see that. I’ve had my share of injuries myself last year, and when you really love this sport, you love to play, yeah, when it’s taken away from you like this, it’s tough to deal with. Every player can relate. But for now not much I can do. I can just focus on the final and try to prepare.”
And there were more injuries for players who weren’t slated to face Auger-Aliassime. Daniil Medvedev retired with a hip issue after dropping the first set of his quarter-final match to Lehecka on Thursday night. And after crashing out of the tournament, Carlos Alcaraz pulled out of the upcoming Italian Open after aggravating his old injury.
Addressing the physical issues seen among the top players this week, the 23-year-old said: “I don’t know. You know, when obviously there’s a lot, we tend to think, well, this is not, like, a coincidence. Obviously when there’s one player, it’s a coincidence.
“But I’m torn between the idea that everybody has got their own issues, obviously, and then I think I can speak for many players that we all have minor issues throughout a tournament of, like, two weeks, a little bit of tension here, little bit of sickness there, a cold or something.”
However, Auger-Aliassime accepted that it was extreme to see so many issues result in a retirement or walkover. “But then that it’s like enough to retire or enough to walk over, that’s another level. So are we seeing that many? I don’t know. I don’t know. I think it’s personal to each player. It’s something that athletes live with,” he continued.
“I think the specific thing and the weird thing with tennis is that outside of the first round, a Lucky Loser can step in, and like a team sport, another guy can jump in. We don’t have that, so it creates a situation like tonight or in the quarter-finals with Jannik. That’s just the only difference, but in every sport there is injuries all the time. It’s just that here we cannot replace the guy.”
