Indian Wells (USA) – Seeded number 8 in the Indian Wells Masters 1000, Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime acknowledges that the absence of Serbian Novak Djokovic and Spaniard Rafael Nadal in the competition leaves the group more open for other competitors. However, he feels it is not good for the sport not to have its biggest stars.
“It’s the first major event of the year where neither is present. Although, even with them in the group, in recent years, many different champions have emerged in the Masters 1000 tournaments. the tennis is better than the big names playing,” commented the Canadian.
“It’s not good news for anyone that Rafa and Novak aren’t here, but I think the group is still full of great players and these tournaments will continue to be a success,” added Aliassime, who will be making his debut. directly into the second round and awaits the winner of the match between the Spaniard Pedro Martinez and the Swiss Marc-Andrea Huesler.
Aliassime will try in 2024 to beat the bad record he holds in the Californian tournament, where he accumulates more defeats than victories in the main draw. In the past two years, he hasn’t even made it past his debut and his best campaign came in 2019, when he reached the third round, beating Cameron Norrie and Stefanos Tsitsipas to lose to Yoshihito Nishioka.
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