![\"Felix](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/auger-aliassime-australian-open-2026-monday.jpg\")
<\/p>\n Australian Open
\n Auger-Aliassime retires at Australian Open: ‘I don’t want to be just standing there like a punching bag’<\/p>\n
Canadian retires at start of fourth set<\/p>\n
January 19, 2026<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Clive Brunskill\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Felix Auger-Aliassime plays against Nuno Borges Monday in Melbourne before retiring down two sets to one.
\n By ATP Staff<\/p>\n
Seventh seed Felix Auger-Aliassime<\/a> retired due to cramp during his first-round match at the Australian Open<\/a> on Monday. Portugal\u2019s Nuno Borges<\/a> led 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 when the Canadian could not continue.<\/p>\n Auger-Aliassime, 25, reached the semi-finals of last year’s US Open<\/a> and was seeking to begin the 2026 major season in similar form. But struggling with his upper left leg, Auger-Aliassime called a medical time out late in the third set and again received treatment before the start of the fourth set. After playing two points in the fourth set, Auger-Aliassime retired.<\/p>\n “I’m okay, but I just started cramping at the start of the third set,” Auger-Aliassime said. “It became very difficult to be competitive at this level. \u201cI feel for him,\u201d Borges said of Auger-Aliassime. \u201cI know how he feels to struggle physically and it is part of tennis. I hope he gets better quickly and back to his best level.<\/p>\n \n\u201cIt\u2019s a great win for me either way. I thought I competed well. Maybe if he was 100 per cent, it would\u2019ve been a different score, but I\u2019m really happy to push through this one and get another opportunity on Wednesday.\u201d<\/p>\n Borges, who reached the fourth round in Melbourne in 2024, will next meet Juan Manuel Cerundolo<\/a> or Aussie wild card Jordan Thompson<\/a>. The 28-year-old Borges made the third round last year before falling to Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> in four sets.<\/p>\n Auger-Aliassime believes he began cramping in the third set, but admitted it is tough to recall.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Obviously you don’t panic. You think, ‘Oh, maybe it was just one bad movement or one jump that didn’t feel right’,” Auger-Aliassime said. “But then as I started moving left and right, having to sprint, and every time I cramped, you know what’s happening.”<\/p>\n It is not the first time Auger-Aliassime has cramped, so he was aware of what was happening. But that did not make it any less disappointing.<\/p>\n “I want to be on the court winning. I want to be on the court competing with my opponent,” Auger-Aliassime said. “I don’t want to be just standing there like a punching bag. So there’s no point, and you know to move on.”<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian Open Auger-Aliassime retires at Australian Open: ‘I don’t want to be just standing there like a punching…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-245789","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nI tried for a set, but yeah, wasn’t possible today.”<\/p>\n![\"\u201cATP\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/atp-no-1-club-banner-article.jpg\")
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