This Week in Tennis: Auger-Aliassime wins second…

Welcome to This Week in Tennis, where we catch up on all the latest and biggest stories from the ATP and WTA Tours.

Auger-Aliassime takes the Open Occitanie

Félix Auger-Alissime continued his strong start to the year, defeating Aleksandar Kovacevic 6-2, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (2) to win the Open Occitanie on Sunday.

The Montreal native defeated Arthur Cazaux, Yunchaokete Bu, and Jesper de Jong en route to the final in Montpellier.

It’s the second title of the young season for Auger-Aliassime after he won the Adelaide International in January.

The 24-year-old faces a quick turnaround for the ABN AMRO Open in Rotterdam with his first-round match against Andrea Vavassori scheduled for Tuesday. Auger-Aliassime won the title in Rotterdam in 2022, defeating the top-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets for his first ATP title.

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Canadian comeback falls short at Davis Cup Qualifier

Canada nearly completed an epic comeback against Hungary in the first-round qualifier at the Davis Cup.

Singles losses by Alexis Galarneau and Gabriel Diallo on Saturday put Canada in a 2-0 hole in the best-of-five format. Vasek Pospisil and Liam Draxl opened Sunday’s action by defeating Mate Valkusz and Peter Fajta 7-6 (2), 6-4 in a must-win doubles match.

Diallo, the highest-ranked singles player on Canada’s roster at No. 85, evened the score at 2-2 with a win over Fabian Marozsan 6-1, 6-3, giving Galarneau a chance to complete the comeback against Marton Fucsovics.

However, it was not meant to be for the Laval, Que., native as he lost a hard-fought 7-6 (8), 6-4 match in front of his home crowd at IGA Stadium in Montreal.

"I felt proud to represent Canada, to have the chance to complete the comeback. To go from 0-2 to 3-2 would have been incredible,” said Galarneau. “After losing, you come down pretty quickly. But that's tennis sometimes."

With the loss Canada is relegated to the World Group 1 level, where it will need to beat a yet-to-be-determined opponent to earn a spot in the Davis Cup first round next year.

Pospisil plays final Davis Cup match, announces 2025 will be final season of tennis

Following his doubles win on Sunday, Vasker Pospisil announced that he had played his final Davis Cup match and will retire from tennis sometime this year.

“There were a lot of emotions before the match. I didn't want to talk about it before, didn't want it to be a distraction for the team,” Pospisil said at the post-match news conference. “Just the best memories of my career, playing with the team. Davis Cup means so much to me and these guys meant so much, and playing for your country.

“It just had such a huge, big impact on my career and life.”

The Vernon, B.C., native has represented Canada at the Davis Cup for over 14 years, making his first appearance in 2008. He went 5-2 combined in singles and doubles action in 2022 to help Canada to its first-ever Davis Cup title.

“I’ll make a decision on when I’ll be done with tennis completely. It’s not exactly clear, but today is definitely the last Davis Cup match of my career,” he said. “There are young players coming who are playing really well, and I need to think about the next steps in my life.

“I’ve played a lot of years in tennis, so for me, this is the right time to stop.”

Pospisil held a career-high singles rank of No. 25 on the ATP tour in 2014. He won the Doubles title at Wimbledon with American teammate Jack Sock in 2014.

All winners from last week:

WTA 500 Linz

Women's Singles: Ekaterina Alexandrova (1/5) d. Dayana Yastremska
Women's Doubles: Timea Babos/Luisa Stefani

ATP 250 Montpellier

Men's Singles: Félix Auger-Alissime (2/7) d. Aleksandar Kovacevic
Men's Doubles: Robin Haase/Botic van de Zandschulp

WTA 250 Singapore

Women's Singles: Elise Mertens d. Ann Li
Women's Doubles: Desirae Krawczyk/Giuliana Olmos

*(Titles in 2025/Career Titles)

The ATP's best return to Toronto this summer for the National Bank Open July 27 to Aug. 7, 2025 at Sobeys Stadium. 2025 Tickets are on sale. Get your tickets today!

The WTA's best return to Montreal this summer for the National Bank Open July 26 to Aug. 7, 2025 at IGA Stadium. 2025 Tickets are on sale. Get your tickets today!

Feature Photo: JB Autissier