As he announced a few weeks ago, Felix Auger-Aliassime came to Manacor to train with the 20-time major champion Rafael Nadal. The 20-year-old, followed by his trainer Fredric Fontang, starts his preparations for the season in Manacor and works with Rafa and his uncle Toni Nadal on an indoor court.
Born in Montreal, who lives in Monte Carlo, was unable to show any effect in 2020 and ended the season in the same position in which he started after 23 wins and 19 losses. Auger-Aliassime suffered three major losses in the ATP Cup before reaching the semi-finals in Adelaide.
Felix’s first notable result of the season came in Rotterdam in February. After a straight set defeat against Gael Monfils in the final, but still without an ATP title. A week later, the Canadian was in another indoor final in Marseille, beaten by Stefanos Tsitsipas and was still waiting for the first ATP crown.
Felix scored three wins at the US Open, lost to Dominic Thiem in the round of 16 and hardly won a match in Rome, Hamburg and Roland Garros for a terrible sand season. Felix had his sixth loss to Alexander Zverev in Cologne in his sixth ATP final and recovered in the same place a week later to reach the semifinals.
Felix ended the season with four straight losses, missing the chance to finish the year in the top 20 for the second straight season, and hoping for a better run in 2021.
Rafael Nadal and Felix Auger-Aliassime train together in Manacor
Felix will use the experience from the training sessions with Rafa Nadal and his uncle and learn from the 20-time major champion who started preparations for the season a few days ago after a well-deserved break.
Nadal is happy with his 2020 campaign, won two ATP titles and reached Roger Federer in the GOAT race. Nadal lost first place to Novak Djokovic after the Australian Open and got 85th shortly before the outbreak of the coronavirus.
ATP title in Acapulco. Rafa spent the next six and a half months at home in Mallorca and didn’t train in March and April. In May, he returned to the practice site and stayed on the sand for a few months and decided to skip Cincinnati and the US Open.
Rafa returned to Rome, lost the title won a year ago and went to Roland Garros with three games under his feet in the last seven months! Still, the Spaniard raised his level to take the title without losing a set.
He celebrated the 20th major crown and again proved his greatness. At the end of the season, Nadal reached the Paris Masters semifinals and the same round at the ATP Finals, beating Daniil Medvedev before falling in three sets.
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