Félix Auger-Aliassime

Early life

Félix Auger-Aliassime, often called FAA, was born in Montreal and grew up in L'Ancienne-Lorette, near Quebec City. His father, Sam Aliassime, is a tennis instructor of Togolese heritage, and his mother, Marie Auger, is French Canadian. He has an older sister, Malika, who also plays tennis.

He picked up a racket at age four and trained at Club Avantage with the Académie de Tennis Hérisset-Bordeleau in Quebec City. In 2012, he won the Open Super Auray for players aged 11 to 12. Since autumn 2014, he has trained at Tennis Canada's National Training Centre in Montreal.

Junior career

In February 2015, Auger-Aliassime won his first ITF junior singles title at the G3 in Querétaro, and the following week he won a second straight junior singles title and his first doubles title at the G4 in Zapopan. In late August 2015, he claimed his first junior G1 title by defeating compatriot Denis Shapovalov in College Park. At the 2015 US Open, his first junior Grand Slam, he reached the second round in singles and won the doubles title with Shapovalov.

In October 2015, he and compatriots Denis Shapovalov and Benjamin Sigouin won the Junior Davis Cup title, the first for Canada. In December 2015, he won his second G1 singles title at the Eddie Herr International Tennis Championship, defeating Alex de Minaur in the final. At the 2016 French Open junior event, he reached his first Grand Slam singles final but lost to Geoffrey Blancaneaux in three sets despite holding a championship point. At Wimbledon in July 2016, he advanced to the singles quarterfinals and the doubles final with Shapovalov.

At the 2016 US Open, he won the boys' singles title with a straight-sets victory over Miomir Kecmanović and also reached the doubles final with Benjamin Sigouin. His junior singles win–loss record was 79–19.

Professional career

In March 2015 at the Challenger de Drummondville, Auger-Aliassime became the youngest player to qualify for an ATP Challenger main draw at 14½ years old, defeating Jack Mingjie Lin, former world No. 67 Chris Guccione, and world No. 433 Fritz Wolmarans, but withdrew before his first-round match due to an abdominal strain. With the points earned, he became the first player born in the 2000s to have an ATP ranking. At the Challenger de Granby in July 2015, he qualified for his second ATP Challenger main draw and won his opening round over world No. 493 Andrew Whittington, becoming the youngest player to win a main-draw ATP Challenger match.

He then upset world No. 205 Darian King before losing to world No. 145 Yoshihito Nishioka in the quarterfinals, and afterward became the youngest player to break the top 800 at No. 749. In May 2016, he reached his first professional singles final at a $10k event in Lleida, losing to Ramkumar Ramanathan. In November 2016, he won his first pro title at an ITF Futures in Birmingham, and the next week he captured his first pro doubles title in Niceville with Patrick Kypson.

The following week, he advanced to the semifinals of the $75k ATP Challenger in Drummondville with a win over world No. 124 Peter Polansky, but lost to Denis Shapovalov.

Other ventures

Félix Auger-Aliassime was featured in the Netflix tennis series Break Point, which launched on January 13, 2023, and sparked social media talk of a "Netflix Curse" affecting players' results. In 2020, he teamed up with BNP Paribas to launch #FAAPointsForChange, a program supporting children in Togo’s Kara region, his father’s homeland.

The ATP honored him with the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award in 2023 for this work. He skipped the 2024 Davis Cup final in November to continue the initiative, with Milos Raonic taking his place on Team Canada. In early 2025, the program expanded with BNP Paribas to offer excellence scholarships for disadvantaged rural Togolese students at the University of Lomé.

Did You Know?

• Auger-Aliassime's favorite shot is the forehand, and his favorite tournament is the Rogers Cup, played in his hometown of Montreal.
• His most successful surface is indoor hardcourt, having won eight of his nine titles on it.