Felix Auger-Aliassime walked onto Arthur Ashe Stadium on Thursday as the No. 3 seed and a genuine title threat. He walked off dazed, defeated and searching for answers.
The Canadian’s US Open ended abruptly in the second round with a 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 loss to Karen Khachanov, a result that looked like an upset on paper but felt, in real time, like a player’s body simply giving way.
Dizzy, seeing spots, and out in four sets
Auger-Aliassime edged a tight first set in a tiebreak and seemed to have settled into the match. Then the floor went from under him.
“After a set and a half, I just didn't feel well and was dizzy and seeing spots,” he told reporters. “I thought maybe it would pass but it didn't. That's the end of the tournament for me and now back to the drawing board.”
From that moment, the match turned brutally one-sided. The legs slowed. The serve deserted him. The shot selection frayed. Khachanov, too good to need a second invitation, simply tightened the screws.
Auger-Aliassime landed only 58 per cent of his first serves, a dangerous number against a powerful returner. He faced 20 break points and was broken seven times. The double faults — eight of them — arrived at all the wrong moments, each one draining more belief.
He finished with 47 unforced errors to Khachanov’s 30. Both men struck 12 aces, but that was where the parity ended.
“Karen's a great player, but I cannot beat him or anyone in this draw feeling the way I felt today,” Auger-Aliassime said, blunt as ever.
Ranking under threat, questions with no answers
This wasn’t supposed to be his week to exit quietly.
A semifinalist in New York last year before losing to eventual runner-up Jannik Sinner, Auger-Aliassime came into the tournament as the world No. 4, his highest career ranking. A second-round defeat, especially as a top-three seed, will put that position under immediate pressure when the points are tallied.
What stings more is the mystery around it all. There was no warning sign, no nagging injury he’d been nursing.
He said he felt fine before stepping on court. No flu, no obvious illness. Just a sudden collapse in how his body responded under the lights.
The plan now is simple: go home, get tested, find out why a player in peak physical condition ended up dizzy and seeing spots in the middle of a Grand Slam match.
There’s another layer of uncertainty too. Auger-Aliassime split with long-time coach Frederic Fontang earlier in the summer and is navigating this crucial stretch of his career without a settled voice in his corner. He said he hopes to announce a new coach in the coming weeks — a decision that now carries even more weight as he tries to steady a season that has veered off script.
Canadian doubles deliver on opening day
While Auger-Aliassime’s singles exit cast a shadow, Canadian success arrived elsewhere on the schedule.
Gabriela Dabrowski, the doubles specialist from Ottawa, opened her women’s doubles campaign in commanding style alongside Brazilian partner Luisa Stefani. The second seeds swept aside Irina Khromacheva and Anastasia Detiuc 6-1, 6-3, barely loosening their grip once they got in front.
They fired four aces and 21 winners, more than double their opponents’ nine, dictating the tempo from the first game and never really letting the Russian-Czech pair breathe.
Dabrowski, who lifted her second US Open doubles trophy last year with Erin Routliffe, is chasing another deep run with Stefani. Their next assignment will come against the winners of Friday’s clash between Sara Errani and Lilli Tagger and American twins Kristina and Annika Penickova — a very different stylistic test, but one they will enter as clear favourites.
On an outer court, Leylah Fernandez kept the Canadian flag flying with a ruthless performance in women’s doubles. Teaming up with Indonesia’s Janice Tjen, the Laval native crushed Nika Radisic and Isabelle Haverlag 6-1, 6-1.
It was over almost as soon as it began, Fernandez and Tjen racing through the match with clean hitting and aggressive returning. They next face Routliffe and Aldila Sutjiadi, a pairing with plenty of chemistry and a serious threat to go deep themselves.
Singles spotlight shifts to Fernandez and Shapovalov
Fernandez’s doubles win is only part of her New York story. She was due back on court Friday in singles, facing a stern examination against third seed Jessica Pegula.
On the men’s side, Denis Shapovalov carried Canadian hopes into the third round, scheduled to take on big-serving American Ben Shelton. It’s the kind of match that can tilt a tournament’s narrative for a country in a single afternoon.
For Auger-Aliassime, though, the narrative has already shifted. Twelve months ago he was playing under the lights in the last four, trading blows with the sport’s elite. This year he leaves after two rounds, his ranking under threat, his health a puzzle, his coaching box in transition.
New York has a way of exposing everything — form, fitness, fragility. The question now is how quickly he can turn this jarring night into the start of a reset rather than the beginning of a slide.
