Felix Auger-Aliassime confessed that it had been a “very strange week” in Madrid after he benefitted from the withdrawals and retirements of three different players. The world No. 35 is through to his first Masters 1000 final having played just three full matches. Jiri Lehecka and Jakub Mensik retired while playing Auger-Aliassime and Jannik Sinner pulled out ahead of their quarter-final.
Auger-Aliassime’s semi-final match against Lehecka was over almost as quickly as it had started when the Czech star was forced to retire after 33 minutes. Lehecka called the physio at 3-3 in the first set and received an off-court medical time out. He returned and continued the match but only managed to play three more points before falling on the court and retiring with lower back pain.
It was the third time this tournament that Auger-Aliassime advanced off the back of one of his rivals’ injuries. The Canadian got a walkover into the semis when top seed Sinner pulled out of the tournament a day before they were due to face off in the quarter-final. And during their third-round match on Monday, Mensik retired while 1-6 0-1 down.
“It’s crazy. I don’t know if it’s ever happened to a player before. It’s kind of a weird situation to be in on my part. I mean, it’s never happened to me in my career so far. Like a withdrawal or walkover or retirement of this sort and back-to-back like this,” Auger-Aliassime told Tennis TV immediately after Lehecka retired on Friday night.
Taking to X (formerly known as Twitter) after coming off the court, the former world No. 6 wrote: “Very strange week full of unique circumstances but for now all my thoughts go to Jiri and everyone else currently struggling with injury. I know everyone will be back in due time. All I can do is focus on the battle ahead.”
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