Felix Auger-Aliassime shows respect for Andy Murray following dominant US Open win

Rising Canadian star Felix Auger-Aliassime showed class and respect following a 6-2 6-3 6-4 win over three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray in the US Open second round.

Murray, a former world No. 2, who underwent two hip surgeries over the last few years, stood no chance against world No. 21 Auger-Aliassime.

"It wouldn’t be fair for me to say that he was at his peak tonight," Auger-Aliassime said, per Metro UK. "I know. I have seen Andy play. I could see it was in his emotions and what he felt that it wasn’t his greatest night. ‘Obviously me playing well was obviously probably even tougher for him. But I still felt like when he needed to he could play well."

Auger-Aliassime says he still understood why Murray's a great champion 

"You know, he would come up with good shots, good serve. You could still feel his touch is really good. He doesn’t miss too much backhands," Auger-Aliassime said. 

"But I know in his peak he would be even more solid. But even though he wasn’t his best tonight, I still felt and I understood why he was a great champion with the way he was able to make you earn every point and, you know, you needed to play well to win a match like today."

Auger-Aliassime, who plays next either Dan Evans or Corentin Moutet, doesn't want to speak about winning the US Open.

"Well, obviously I’m here to go as far as I can, and if that’s winning the tournament, then that will be it," Auger-Aliassime added. "But I’ve got to start by – it’s only the third round, early in the tournament. You know, these things are new to me, later stages of a Grand Slam.

"So I’m not really, you know, focusing myself on this yet, because even if I play well today, it doesn’t guarantee anything for the upcoming matches. ‘But knowing that I did that today, I think obviously brings a lot of confidence, and if I can repeat that, obviously, like Greg said, I will give myself good chances."

Meanwhile, Murray hopes to build his physical condition.

"The more tournaments that you play, the more matches that you play, you build up that sort of robustness in your body which right now I don’t really have,” Murray said, per The Irish Times.

“So that’s something that I’ll need to build up over the next few months and hopefully beginning of next year if I can stay healthy, I will be better able to back up difficult physical efforts.

“I felt like I played some good stuff at times, but it was quite up and down. I would like to play consistently better tennis.

“If you aren’t playing at a high level consistently, then you will play longer matches because you’re having dips."

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3i0jbGU