We Need To Talk About Félix Auger-Aliassime... 

Felix… I really like this guy, but I can’t help to feel that there’s a weird stiffness in his ground strokes, especially his BH. A little bit like his idol Tsonga. Neither his regular backhand and slice is good enough to carry him through matches when he is off on his serve, so yeah I think there’re some technicality issues. I don’t think his mental game is particularly bad, but you won’t have the confidence to hit big if he can’t really count on his ground strokes.

As a Canadian, I wanted success for him so much. When I went to watch him in Montreal, he seemed as though he was dying of embarrassment or shame in front of his hometown crowd. I think he has such a good heart; maybe he’s not brutal or warriorlike enough. I honestly thought he might be better as a model - he wears clothes beautifully. Tennis is not for everyone. But he and his family have invested in this dream so heavily for years. Commentator Gill Gross has said he wants Felix to show his feelings more when things are not going his way.

The most valid argument and 100% accurate was at @10:50 - he is an ''indoor court player''; the reason however is not mentioned and that is he comes from Canada - especially Montreal - where is very very cold in the winter and everyone practically lives indoors for at least 3-4 months per year. Let's not forget that Toronto - a bit warmer than Montreal - has the largest, longest underground shopping mall in the world for this exact reason; keeping people away from cold during winter and offer them shopping.. Soo FAA's ''preference'' to playing indoors has its roots in the environment he grew up in.

I feel like not only Felix's coaching entourage needs a bit of a revamp, but also, perhaps Felix might need an equipment change as well (We saw how Fed has changed from his slightly smaller 95 sq inch Wilson frame, to a 98 sq.inch frame; IT MADE A HUGE DIFFERENCE circa 2017, and then we saw Novak pre-2011 making small, but vital tweaks to his service technique, his pre/post conditioning training and workouts; diets, etc. and look how he is now) I don't think Felix needs to change entirely, with his form, appearance, or technique at all. It's rather more something of hopefully a small change in his forehand/tactical game, that helps him make that HUGE JUMP into winning a grand slam!

Hi Noah, I am beyond happy to hear you're gonna tackle the WTA tour. As a female player, it is infuriating how little we get in terms of quality content about female players next to the wide range of quality analysis concerning the men's tour. Love your channel either way. 🎉

Hi Noah, I just wanted to tell you that I've been watching your videos for so long because I love tennis almost as much as you, and the videos you make are truly stunning! I haven't been this hooked on a youtube channel for years and the way you structure your videos is incredible. I can't imagine how much research you must do but I hope you know that you make incredible tennis videos and keep doing what you're doing bro, you're amazing! - Take care

Noah this is an amazing break down. I love your channel so much, please don’t stop giving us updates

Love this type of videos, hope you do more deep dives into more players in the future

Most elegant player since federer. I love the style of his strokes !

Great analysis, which answers a lot of questions I’ve wondered about during Felix’s often-baffling career. As the whole world says, I think first and foremost he needs to change coaches. And, like Canada’s other underperforming tennis stars, he should spend as much time as possible with a sports psychologist. More mental toughness in the difficult moments would help a lot.

Thank you for yet another well researched video. Keep em coming! I agree on all points. He's had success in team events such as the Davis and Laver cups - both indoor events. I think the team aspect also helps bring out his aggressiveness and confidence. I personally would have fired Toni - what was Felix paying him for?? To be absent in one of the biggest matches of his career? Felix is too nice, too accommodating. That's the Canadian in him.

Excellent analysis of the issues with Felix’s tennis! 👍👍👍👏👏👏

Excellent analysis, I can't agree more! You are so right regarding the need to change coach. Magnus Norman would be the perfect coach for Felix. Actually, Felix is experiencing something similar to what Wawrinka went through before working with Norman: lack of aggressivity. Norman said exactly that about Wawrinka's tennis when they started, before the first GS title. FAA must develop a killer shot, he has good pace, but no a single killer and certainly he must work his approach. It is amazing how many times he get passed approaching to the net with his 6 foot 4. By the way, Brad Gilbert would be a complete disaster, personalities would not fit at all and you are right: FAA has problems firing his team he generates too much personal relations there (which is the complete opposite of Raonic who never hesitated to change coaches and always kept separated personal and professional relations). Maybe he needs a better management team more than a psychologist.

I saw improvements in Felix’s game at AO. I think he’s on the come up this year. His ranking will go up. I say top 20.

Great video man, keep it up!

Thanks for this an amazing video about Felix.

I could go on and on. The analysis is mostly right. The Toni Nadal fiasco is unbearable. No GOAT would have tolerated that. Here are some thoughts: Positives Late 2023-2024: Winning Basel proved to him that he could come back at any time, ( a tiny miracle to keep him in top 30) Backhand: he is missing less, going for the down the line Going to the net a tiny bit more Knee is better He has a positive match record now He still has huge unadulterated power Negatives Serve- I though it he was using Eastern or continental grip, but not really. It's just the way he cocks back the wrist that gives him a hard time with kicker- I don't know the solution Confidence- Still shaky, even after playing a good match. This is truly mind boggling, Dimitrov and Cilic-like. He is still a bad strategist; lacks killer instinct when he wins first set, loses serve at top of sets, lets players back in, blows leads, bad break point conversion, comes in one shot too late... Bad coaching. He is still way too loyal to his coach. A good coach has to step aside if the player refuses to adopt changes. A good player has to find a coach who forces him to change. Verdict: He will remain hot and cold unless he goes through a tremendous transformation. He has to change his identity and become ruthless. He is way too nice. He has too much respect, he has to understand that he is building an extremely hurtful reputation in which every player thinks they can beat him now.

Once you lose your confidence on the ATP tour, it's very difficult to get it back. Lower rating means you are no longer seeded and 1st round matches get much tougher. Maybe best to go to the Challenger tour and regain your confidence.

He needs more character to fire his coaches and find new ones. We see all time great players stuck due to bad coaching. When they step up and face those difficult decisions they see new and better results. All the analysis you made was brilliant and it is exactly what a very good coach could do for him, focusing in those aspects on a daily basis to skyrocket his game again. If your coach won't sit with you when you face his nephew is almost insulting. Felix needs more courage and raise the expectations about people around him.

Excellent analysis of the enormous challenges Felix faces. The main point is that Felix - whom I admire immensely as a human being, by the way - is indeed far too loyal to his current - mediocre - coach Frédéric Fontang. It is urgently time to make a decision and join forces with a coach who 1) puts the absolute emphasis on RESOLUTE AGRESSIVE tennis, and not just from the baseline - 2) helps him to firmly improve his second serve. Because the saying "A player is only as good as his second serve" is still more valid than ever in today's tennis world. In that respect, Pete Sampras could be an excellent coach, but the question is, of course, whether he has any ambitions as a coach at all. Either way, the first three months of 2024 have again been disastrous for Felix, and it is high time to make the necessary changes if he wants to make full use of his immense talent. The opposite would be dead wrong. Good luck and above all courage, Felix!

His shots are beautiful to watch

Their knee was the big factor since is décline he still young and I still believe in him a lot of people put a lot of pressure on him and Toni Nadal was not a great coach i remain optimist believe Felix 23 year old is young that still better than last year

watching this video after he lost 3 match point agaisnt rublev hits different

I don't know if it's feasible, but I think Felix should try to get Brad Gilbert at least as a consultant. Whether you like him or not, Gilbert is an expert at evaluating talent and tactics. Great analysis!

He is capable of going on hot streaks and winning titles. That’s not enough to win a Slam IMO. His one dimensional style is feast or famine. That can only take FAA so far.

So sad what happened to Felix !

Two main focuses for him: Work on that kick serve for his second serve Work on his backhand technique, his wrists are way too loose. Hugh Clarke has some great analysis on this

do Frances next

He needs a new coaching team!

Felix has three issues. These are not new issues but he has managed them better in the past. 1. He doesn’t serve consistently big enough and consistently enough for a 6’4” generational athlete(watching he yesterday he can uncork one but he doesn’t do it enough) 2. His forehand is one dimensional. Top players can hit heavy, flatten it out depending on the ball, court position, intent, etc. Felix has one forehand. Heavy and generally deep for modern tennis, leading to misses and also leaving him vulnerable on approach shots. He also is not consistent where he takes the ball out of the air. This leads to all lot of missed balls. 3. Lastly his backhand is unreliable at best. He can’t consistent go down the line to change the pattern and get it back in his forehand. So he gets pinned to that side like a junior. When he brought on Uncle Tony he managed this by clearly running around it more and hitting more forehands which was very effective. The issue is his spacing on his backhand is not good. He has to fix this if he ever wants to improve his consistency on this side…. If you watch he makes too much content with his racquet tip at 6 or 7 o’clock

When i saw felix on tour 2020,2021 and i found hiis sets always 6-7 or even when he looses he loses in tie break he looses like 6-4 0r 6-7 . I told to my friend auger is good talented upcoming player and in 2022 season he was top 10 player but he lost the way in 2023 . Hope he comes back very soon

Anyone know what website or app those tennis stats are from at the 5:45 mark?

I agree much of what you said about Felix. He really doesn't have a plan B and makes errors frequently. Actually I think Shapovalov has similar issues, even worse.

As soon as FAA started posting more pictures of him and his GF traveling and visiting cool places around the world together, his tennis career took a nose dive. I think he started focusing more on his personal relationship and life outside of tennis and not continuing to polish his tennis. Nothing wrong morally if that is the case! Just unfortunate for tennis fans.

He’s always been one to watch. Beautiful muscular lines and techniques.

Every since his lost to Alcaraz in Indian Wells 2023 he's never been the same. He was probably playing at his best in that match and still.

Felix won 3 finals in a row last year at the end of the season. He gave it his all. As we know, everything has to fall into place to achieve any success. He has it in him. Tennis is very unpredictable. You never know how a game/match will turn out. And you don't get a second chance. You go all the way or you don't. It's also a career. So at least he's getting somewhere and he's making money to survive on. Good for him. He'll get his chance. We know he can do it. I wish him all the best. (fellow Canadian)

What happened to Shapovalov? What happened to Raonic? What happened to Eugenie? What happened to Bianca?

Thanks for the sharp analysis- I very much agree with it. He should fire Toni Nadal IMMEDIATELY (which he should have done already after RG), and create a new environment with new coaches in which he feels comfortable. However, I feel that he will have a comeback.

On the point.

He needs to improve his volleying skills and add more variety to his game.

In 2022 he was playing great though !

Why do tennis fans think every good young player will be Future 1 & win Grand Slams. Just getting into the Top 20 is more than enough. After that is just Icing & sprinkles on the cake.

I’m surprised Felix hasn’t changed his main coach, Fontang, after the results he had in 2023. I know he had injuries in the first half of the year but he never really recovered performance wise, other than winning that one title. I like him but until he changes his coach my expectations for him will be low, but my hopes for the long term remain high as he has a lot of time left in his career to make the necessary improvements.

I'm uncertain if this will reach him, but as avid fans, we're let down. Despite his humility, Felix should consider altering his tactics mid-match, particularly seen against Medvedev. Enhancing his mental strength and seeking guidance, spiritual or otherwise, could bolster his performance. Notably, he seems more confident with his mom in the box, a presence that clearly boosts his game. We remain always hopeful for his success and continue to stand by Felix, looking forward to future triumphs.

same as Tsitsi or Med, he reached his maximum potential, without a major technical facelift he will slowly but surely sink away

The question on mentality isnt about the drive to succeed but to succeed against his opponents during big points. That, he lacks

How about Casper Ruud next?

He had a phenomenal comeback win against Jannik Sinner

The butterfly has emerged out of the cocoon. His game has matured and as we all can see, it's not good enough for winning against the top 10.

The biggest problem I see with Felix's game is his backhand. I think due to his technique, it looks he can't really hit the ball sharply crosscourt. The ball goes more to the middle than out wide. So he can never drag his opponent out to their backhand side enough to open up anything for his forehand. Also, while his backhand has an extremely heavy topspin, it looks like he's unable to flatten it out. That makes it really hard to hit winners off that wing. Plus, the lack of spin variety allows top players to adjust to his pace and time his balls too well.

Mental. Game

The point is he's too one dimensional and his window of opportunity is now closed. This happens in tennis all the time

I'm feeling Gael Monfils vibes with FAA☹️

Great guy but he doesn’t have IT and he never will.

One word "Confidence"

Felix needs to quickly improve his backhand, which he often hits too close to the ball. Also his backhand grip has too much space between the hands, reducing his left hand whip and leverage. Finally, he has to vary more his shots patterns, including more short cross balls. And, as explained in the video, using a reliable second kick serve, while occasionally surprising with a slice, might be a good idea. But he has the talent and the intelligence to improve and reach higher levels, the question is does he have the will and the fire to surpass the others ?

his grunt haha

Seriously game issues and it seems he can't fix them easily and frequent injuries don't help.

I have been watching Felix since he was a teen sensation. His weaknesses are now glaring. His backhand is passive, defensive and he doesn't drive rhe ball. Coaching and mechanics are his huge problems.

You forgot one of the main theories: the loss of focus due to the Break Point series (the curse), which got to a lot of players.

just ditch that nobody Tony Nadal and you´ll be fine.

He has beautiful ground strokes.

Felix is on is way back. He is coming back form injuries to his left knee and right shoulder. Since the beginning of 2024, he could hardly reache 10 aces per three sets. In the last tournaments, he got back to his normal service ration, with an avarage of 10 aces per sets and seveval power serves unreturned. And he almost won it againts Rubleve last week. He had three match points that he has not been able to win. FAA needs his big serves to win his game to compensate his high number of unforced errors due to his agressive style. I'm telling you, if he does not get injured again, we will see great tennis from him.

Tony Nadal was what happened he try to make feliz play like Nadal when they don’t have same body size and Felix can actually hit the ball more flat ! Was a disaster 😫

one of the most frustrating players to watch for me

You could say the same about most of the upcoming young stars. They just aren't good enough, that's it. Inevitably the bulk of the professional circuit, though good, simply won't be good enough. It's normal. However, if you want to go into specifics, he's too passive. You should strive to get better and better at high-risk high-reward tennis i.e. Aiming to hit lines at every shot and sadly FAA isn't doing this. A bit like Musetti who, although plays some lovely tennis, all too often doesn't kill points off. I think a good experienced tennis player will aim to win a rally as quickly as possible and not get drawn into 'playing' and that's part of the problem, a lot of the young players tend to play a bit too much. If FAA became more aggressive I reckon his results would improve, provided he maintained his mental resilience - a lot of the younger players are mentally weak, and tennis can be a lonely game, esp when losing. Ironically, they all know how to celebrate, albeit a bit too much, but not so much the digging deep part when things get tough. Going back to FAA, you shouldn't really single him out because as I said there are so many of the young talent (Fritz, Zverev, Tsitsipas, Ruud, Shelton, De Minaur, Musetti, Korda, Bublik, etc etc to name but a few) that are all great to watch but just aren't consistent enough. Sure they might get to a semi-final of a slam then drop out in the first round of the next ATP event. Hopefully, with any luck, he'll get a slam and I wish the same for all the guys on tour but consistency is another animal and I just don't see it in the current crop of young talent, unfortunately.

5:56 zverev used to have this issue

He’s just a servebot, that’s it, only serve and then forehand or volley

Hey, do you know what happened to Basilashvili? Saw him playing in challenger the other week & looks like a shell of his former self

Totally agree with you he needs to sack his coach he could play a lot better than what he’s doing 🙏

New Coach Yesterday… I expect his salary for his coaches are their livlihoods, but he has to get a new coach. I like George mouratoglou

He just beat Ruud! Maybe he took your critiques to heart.

Damn bro, tell us how you really feel.

It’s like he went from 100 to zero. I think something else is the problem. Domestic. Girlfriend. Relationship. Whole thing looked like sudden loss of interest

Thank you for this video. Felix is stubborn he needs to fire Frederick Fontang. Why hang on to this coach? Felix got passed by Alcaraz & Sinner. So Felix second serve is the problem. This is a detailed video. It is disturbing Felix has fallen off. I heard Felix got injured he is a nice young man. His backhand is crap. The Canadian tennis media ignoring Felix decline. He is only 23 years old.

He needs to split a case of bud ICE with Brad Gilbert.

Bro u look like ruud

He seemed like he was about to win a big title but then ... nothing unfortunately

He’ll be back eventually

getting really convoluted here. Too many unforced errors - nothing else matters. FAA cant even reliably keep his back hand slice in play. How do you solve that? No clue.

Their knee was the only reason why he is not the same now

don't need to watch the video because the answer is simple, but i will for entertainment purposes. the answer is, not enough development with his backhand (he cannot attack with it, can mainly on send it back cross court), serve becomes one dimensional, and his baseline game as a whole is a little predictable. if you're going to play a predictable gamestyle, you better be damn good at it! i firmly believe he needs to unleash on some shots when he has opportunities instead of always playing the percentage play.

The backhand technique is wonky. Sure flawed technique can work...if the flaw is small enough. His flaw is massive on the backhand side, and I'd call the visible overutilization of the arms in the two-handed backhand as something of a "death move".

So you don’t know his coach and what he’s doing on a daily basis but you’re saying stuff like « he’s mediocre » ! Félix has been with Fontang and Marx for a while. Obviously looks like they are not so mediocre when you look at his evolution and his achievements as a young player. And reached number 6 in the world also! Not too bad for mediocre.

one thing, mentality

There is something deeply flawed about our tennis in Canada that this keeps happening to our young stars… Genie, Bianca, Dennis and now Felix all flopping as they age 😢

He played really good yesterday against rublev but at the end mental weakness made him lose.

Nice guy but his game just doesn't seem natural enough. Idk. He just misses too much.

His backhand technique is strange, and his touch is nonexistent. Hopefully he’ll find a way to get his game back on track

This is the problem with hype.

New crop of ATP player are very good, make Flex just average now!😮

weak backhand terible return game etc.

Players wise up,to the top players games and it’s really only Djokovic that’s the enigma when u play him,he never gives us the same ball twice well rarely, FAA was extremely over hyped his backhand is what I knew would always let him down it’s not a weapon, and the second serve is just not practiced enough that’s extremely evident.

If anyone needs a serious coach change its 100% Tsitsipas. What a wonderful game but whats going on

No we don’t..

Is Alcaraz the FAA of 2024?

Yes, he needs better coaches and better tennis IQ

***Felix is a natural aggressive offensive first ball striker. Felix is not a talented grinder like a Thomas Muster. Felix ground strokes are built for reaction speed in an effort to close the net. Felix groundstrokes are not built for continuous long rallies. Please Felix stop trying to be a Muster when you could easily be a Federer (with a two handed backhand) 90% of the highlights in this video for FAA was showing him closing and winning at net!***

Is he still working with Toni Nadal?