Felix Auger-Aliassime claims he avoided watching the Novak Djokovic and Lorenzo Musetti final in Athens although it was a very important match for him simply because he thought it would be too stressful.
In case you missed it, Musetti needed to win the ATP 250 tournament in Athens to clinch the last ATP Finals spot. In any other scenario, Auger-Aliassime would have sealed the final Turin ticket.
Playing against Djokovic, Musetti made a fine start and won the opening set before the record 24-time Grand Slam champion stormed back to win 4-6 6-3 7-5. But moments after losing the Athens final, the Italian learned that he would still play at the ATP Finals after the Serb told him that he was pulling out of Turin.
"Actually, I didn't. I didn't. I was like, 'This is going to be a bit stressful to watch.' I was trying to stay away from all that stress. I was obviously following the scores, the results, but just focusing on what was under my control, trying to get ready and stay relaxed," Auger-Aliassime admitted at the ATP Finals when asked whether he watched the Djokovic and Musetti match.
Auger-Aliassime landed in Jannik Sinner's group
After securing an ATP Finals ticket at the last moment, Auger-Aliassime was placed in Bjorn Borg Group alongside Sinner, Alexander Zverev and Ben Shelton. On Monday, the Canadian will kick off his second appearance at the season-ending tournament by taking on Sinner.
"You know that coming into this event that every match is going to be tough. I start the tournament with the toughest challenge, which is interesting in a way because I think winning a match like this one would kind of give you confidence that you can go very far in this tournament. If it doesn't go your way, it doesn't," Auger-Aliassime said.
Auger-Aliassime failed to make it past the group stage in his ATP Finals debut in 2022.
