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tennis express pro player gear<\/p>\nBy Richard Pagliaro | Sunday, February 8, 2026
Photo credit: Occitanie Open<\/p>\n
Felix Auger-Aliassime is peerless beneath the ceiling.<\/p>\n
Today, Auger-Aliassime rose up to become Canadian king in Montpellier.<\/p>\n
The top-seeded Auger-Aliassime won the final five points in a row topping Adrian Mannarino 6-3, 7-6(4) to successfully defend his Montpellier title and make majestic history in the process.<\/p>\n
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It is Auger-Aliassime\u2019s ninth career crown\u2014most by any Canadian man in the Open Era\u2014including his eighth indoor championship. Auger-Aliassime broke the Canadian championship record he shared with former world No. 3 Milos Raonic, who officially retired last month.<\/p>\n
The victory vaults Auger-Aliassime, who dropped serve only once in the tournament, to No. 6 in the rankings.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re an individual sport, but there\u2019s a lot of people behind me both here and at home,\u201d Auger-Aliassime said afterward. \u201cI\u2019m not fully French, but I do speak French and I feel really welcome here. Thanks to the crowd here for the support. I always feel it in France and it\u2019s a pleasure for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old Auger-Aliassime leads all ATP players in indoor wins this decade (89) and knocked off three Frenchmen in a row\u2014sixth-seeded Arthur Fils, qualifier Titouan Droguet and Mannarino\u2014becoming the second man to successfully defend Montpellier since Richard Gasquet in 2015-2016.<\/p>\n
On this day, Auger-Aliassime, who retired from his Australian Open opener vs. Nuno Borges due to cramping, served 78 percent, cracked 13 aces against 1 double fault and did not face a break point. over his last two matches, Auger-Aliassime hammered 33 aces against only 1 double fault.<\/p>\n
In a scorching start, Auger-Aliassime stormed through eight straight points backing up the love break with a shutout hold for 2-0.<\/p>\n
Commanding the center of the court, the top-seeded Canadian cracked crosscourt forehands and even banged his backhand down the line. Auger-Aliassime won three of the first six games at love.<\/p>\n
Reading the wide serve, Auger-Aliassime rocketed a forehand return crosscourt breaking at 15 to seize the first set bookended by breaks.<\/p>\n
The oldest finalist in tournament history, the 37-year-old Mannarino fended off three match points edging compatriot Ugo Humbert in round today.<\/p>\n
The 70th-ranked Frenchman stayed in step on serve through the first eight games of the second set.<\/p>\n
Showing explosive athleticism, Auger-Aliassime soared for a smash capping another love hold with a bang for a 5-4 lead.<\/p>\n
The crafty Mannarino was sliding his lefty serve wide on the ad side displacing the Canadian and creating court space for his forehand down the line. Facing championship point at 4-5, Mannarino crossed Auger-Aliassime up playing to his favored forehand to erase match point, eventually holding to level at 5-all.<\/p>\n
Credit Mannarino for successive backhand volley winners, including a sweet high backhand volley angle, that helped him hold to force the tiebreaker.<\/p>\n
In the breaker, Mannarino\u2019s slightly mis-hit return created an acute angle that sent Auger-Aliassime scurrying wide. Mannarino flattened a forehand down the line for the mini break and a 3-2 lead. Mannarino slid the wide serve for a 4-2 lead, however that was the veteran Frenchman\u2019s final stand.<\/p>\n
Auger-Aliassime carved a running defensive slice that stayed low then he swooped in and fired a forehand pass to get the mini break back at 3-4.<\/p>\n
The 2025 US Open semifinalist slashed his 13th ace out wide for a 5-4 lead. Auger-Aliassime won an ensuing 19-shot rally for two more championship points.<\/p>\n
Dancing around his backhand, Auger-Aliassime drilled a diagonal forehand, stepped in and slammed a forehand winner down the line to seal a 95-minute triumph.<\/p>\n
A joyous Auger-Aliassime jumped high above the court.<\/p>\n
The man nicknamed Felix Le Cat erupted in a celebratory scream to punctuate his ninth career championship, including his eight indoor title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Richard Pagliaro | Sunday, February 8, 2026Photo credit: Occitanie Open Felix Auger-Aliassime is peerless beneath the ceiling.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-467062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}