Monte Carlo. Felix Auger Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov were meant to compete together doubles on Tuesday a few hours after Felix was scheduled to play his 1st round in the singles main draw.
Eventually, Auger Aliassime won a tough battle against Juan Ignacio Londero in 1 hour and 58 minutes with a tight 7-5 7-6 (5) scoreline, and the young Canadian was scheduled to play on Wednesday a blockbuster 2nd round against the seed no.3 Sascha Zverev.
The (alleged) hip injury
A few hours after Felix’s match, the Canadians announced that they would not play doubles because of a hip injury suffered by Auger Aliassime. However, the 18-year-old looked extremely upbeat in the press conference that followed his 1st round, and therefore it seems pretty clear that the hip injury is not very serious (if any).
So why playing doubles?
So why playing doubles?It is a recent trend from the tournaments to convince top players to compete in doubles also with the introduction of the champion tiebreak in the 3rd set. However, it is plainly accepted that the participants withdraw from doubles if they won tough matches in singles.
Playing doubles soon after a 2 hours’ battle and ahead of such important match against Zverev would not have been smart at all from Felix.
MONTE CARLO: The official reason that Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov withdrew from today’s first-round doubles match was Felix’s hip – but it doesn’t seem too serious.
— Tom Tebbutt (@tomtebbutt) April 16, 2019
