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<\/p>\nNext week, Montreal tennis star Felix Auger-Aliassime is set to compete in his eighth straight singles main draw at the 2025 U.S. Open Tennis Championships.<\/p>\n
But despite a lengthy list of accolades, including an Olympic bronze medal and seven\u00a0singles titles on the ATP\u00a0Tour, it’s his community outreach in his father’s home country of Togo\u00a0that the tennis star wants the attention focused on.<\/p>\n
In the late\u00a01990s, the 25-year-old Felix’s\u00a0father, Sam Aliassime, immigrated from the West African nation\u00a0when he was around the same age as his son is right now.<\/p>\n
“You’re there [in Togo and] even if you have a dream and you want it, you’re stuck by the circumstances of your environment,” he told CBC Sports. “And he comes to Canada, steps foot, and everything is possible here, if I work hard and I really stick to my goal.”<\/p>\n
WATCH | Auger-Aliassime discusses his journey\u00a0\u2014 and playing hockey with Connor McDavid:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
F\u00e9lix Auger-Aliassime on Love, Pressure, Purpose & meeting Connor McDavid<\/p>\n
CBC Sports\u2019 Anastasia Bucsis sits down with Canadian tennis star F\u00e9lix Auger-Aliassime for an exclusive interview covering every angle of his journey. F\u00e9lix reflects on winning Olympic bronze and even shares the story of meeting Connor McDavid before he became a superstar.<\/p>\n
Those values were poured into Auger-Aliassime\u00a0at a young age, influencing his drive to compete at the highest level of tennis.<\/p>\n
“He gave me all the right tools, to achieve that: hard work discipline, curiosity, work ethic,” he said.<\/p>\n
“You can be a professional tennis player. You can win a Grand Slam. You can be the best tennis player, if you want \u2026 that deep belief that\u00a0you can achieve something out of the ordinary.”<\/p>\n
Following Auger-Aliassime’s breakout year in 2019, he and his father sat down to plan how to give back to the community through his earned success, asking themselves: “Is there a way I can link my tennis career to something that is outside of the tennis but that also resonates with me?”<\/p>\n
Serving the youth of Togo quickly came to mind.<\/p>\n
In 2020, their money-matching program called #FAAPointsForChange was born, where Auger-Aliassime donates $5 for every point he wins in a match toward\u00a0supporting education and child protection in Togo.<\/p>\n
“I can’t do the math quickly now but it’s a lot of points.”<\/p>\n
“We’ve helped hundreds of kids to get a better education,” he said. “Now we’re going to help young adults to get a scholarship to university \u2026 We really want to help to give them a shot at higher education.”<\/p>\n
WATCH | Auger-Aliassime discusses his journey\u00a0\u2014 and playing hockey with Connor McDavid:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755786850_512_default.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Felix Auger-Aliassime wins Montpellier tennis title in tiebreaker<\/p>\n
Felix Auger-Aliassime picked up his second win of the season and seventh career title by winning the Open Occitanie.<\/p>\n
Every couple years, Auger-Aliassime takes a trip to Togo to spend time with the youth, which has also expanded his perception of his father’s childhood, he says.<\/p>\n
“He tells me stories as a kid but it never matches what you can see with your own eyes. My level of respect for his desire to succeed in life, and to work hard, and to be consistent with that. Going there gave me even more respect for what he’s done in his life.”<\/p>\n
‘Unexpected’ Olympic breakthrough<\/p>\n
Last summer, Auger-Aliassime won his first Olympic\u00a0medal, securing bronze at the Paris Olympics in mixed doubles alongside three-time Grand Slam tennis champion Gabby Dabrowski.<\/p>\n
“It was unexpected,” he said. “It was an unbelievable week \u2026 The support I was getting from the crowd, from the people at home, for my second Olympics, was extremely special.”<\/p>\n
A few months later, in November 2024, the tennis player announced his engagement to his long-time girlfriend, Nina Ghaibi.<\/p>\n
And now? It’s the “little wins of every day” that keep him going.<\/p>\n
“At heart, I’m a competitor,” he said. “I love the challenge,\u00a0when you overcome a challenge.<\/p>\n
“The stress before a match when facing an opponent \u2026 when it goes your way and when you win, it’s the best feeling.”<\/p>\n
Auger-Aliassime will search for that feeling when the U.S. Open gets underway, as the marquee event runs from Aug. 18 to Sept. 8.<\/p>\n
“Winning a special tournament and the emotion you get,” he said.<\/p>\n
“That’s deep happiness.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Next week, Montreal tennis star Felix Auger-Aliassime is set to compete in his eighth straight singles main draw…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-86414","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}