US Open draw No. 3 seed Felicis Auger-Aliassime doesn’t help matters, pitting him against Karen Khachanov in the second round. Nor does his body give him much to Jupiter, either.
One of the most intriguing early matchups at Flushing Meadows ended with Khachanov celebrating an unhurried 6-7, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 win over the Canadian star, who appeared to be dealing with some physical discomfort during the match. Khachanov will face the winner of No. 32 seed Ignacio Buse and Benjamin Bonzi in the third round.
The 30-year-old Khachanov was not just another unscathed opponent. He might only be ranked No. 50 in the world right now, but the veteran is the oldest top-10 player to reach the semifinals of the 2022 US Open and has reached at least the third round in seven of the eight Grand Slams.
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He looked to challenge Auger-Aliassime from the start, breaking it to a tiebreaker at two in the first set. Auger-Asiassime was drawn, but he had little success with the rest of the match.
Auger-Aliassime is usually one of the best servers on the tour, and yet has to face 20 break points on the course. Even less serious errors, Khachanov committed 47 to 30, and generally seemed to decrease as the match went on.
He could not provide an exact diagnosis while talking to reporters from the compound, but he described some symptoms;
“I just didn’t feel well and I saw dizziness and spots. Yeah, he couldn’t recover. I thought maybe it was going to happen, but no … Karen’s a great player. I can’t beat him or drag anyone into this feeling the way I felt today.”
It also sounded out of nowhere;
“I had cramps before, I felt good. Tired at the end of the match, but in a normal way. This was a little abnormal. And there were no symptoms in the last two days and no symptoms this morning. I’m not sure. I’ll run some tests and see what comes out of it.”
Combine all that with a certain vintage from Khachanov and the Canadian is facing a problem that cannot be solved.
Khachanov acknowledged Auger-Aliassime’s questions in his postmatch interview:
“I’m not sure, I saw that maybe he had some physical problems. I guess it’s part of our sport, part of tennis. I hope he feels better, if he’s injured, I don’t know. What I can say from my side, I tried to give my best performance.”
Auger-Aliassime reached the quarterfinals at Roland-Garros and Wimbledon this year and reached the semifinals at the US Open in both 2021 and 2025.
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Even the latest chaos is absorbed in humanity, which saw No. 4 seed Novak Djokovic goes down for the first time in the tour, as well as rising stars No. 10 Arthur Fils and No. 12 Rafael Jodar.
It also marks the top two players face a question mark, as No. 1 Alexander Zverev needed a comeback in five sets to survive the first round, when No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz, who is playing his first tournament in more than four months, dropped the first position on Wednesday.