Felix Auger-Aliassime wasn't able to win in his first-round match at the 2023 Canadian Open in Toronto, losing to Max Purcell in two sets.
The 2023 season certainly isn't going as the 23-year-old Canadian expected when it started. Last year, he was able to win 60 matches, lift four ATP titles, and finish the year as the world no. 6 in the ATP Rankings.
Auger-Aliassime won 16 consecutive matches last year, as only Holger Rune managed to stop him at the Paris Masters. But this year is much different. The Canadian has been struggling with injuries and, as a result, losing nine of his last 11 matches.
He had a chance to change that statistic against Max Purcell from Australia, and the home crowd was there to support Auger-Aliassime, after he lost to Yotsuke Watanuki last week in Washington.
But it wasn't a good evening for the Canadian audience. Watching Bianca Andreescu lose in the match that was played simultaneously, Auger-Aliassime could have held the Canadian flag high, but he couldn't do that.
He was broken in the first game of the match, never managing to recover the break. Purcell was just solid on his serve, and thanks to that, he won the opening set 6-4 in only 39 minutes, while hitting five aces and winning 100% of points after his first serve.
In the second set, Auger-Aliassime seemingly found ways to threaten his opponent on the return, but it wasn't enough. The Canadian didn't have a single break point in the match, and after Purcell broke again, nothing could stop the Australian from winning 6-4, 6-4, and setting up a second-round match with Andy Murray, who defeated Lorenzo Sonego earlier in the day.
While Purcell will focus on his second-round match, Auger-Aliassime will want to forget the recent string of losses and focus on the remainder of the hard-court season, as he has a lot of points to defend from last year's sixteen-match winning streak.
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