Opinion: Felix Auger-Aliassime’s decision not to compete in Metz pays off

Felix Auger-Aliassime (Twitter)

Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime made an interesting decision a week ago prior to the 2025 Metz Open in France. He decided to pull out with his knee not at 100%.

At the time of the withdrawal, Auger-Aliassime was still in the hunt to qualify for the ATP World Finals. In order to play in Italy this week, he needed to be among the top eight players in the world. Auger-Aliassime was seeded eighth prior to the ATP events this past week in Metz and Athens, Greece. The only way he would be caught is if Italy’s Lorenzo Mussetti won the Vanda Pharmacuticals Hellenic Championship in Athens.

Musetti had a strong run in Greece this past week. He reached the final by beating Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland 4-6, 7-6, 6-4 in the second round, Alexandre Muller of France 6-2, 6-4 in the quarterfinals, and Sebastian Korda of the United States 6-0, 5-7, 7-5 in the semifinals. Then in the final, Mussetti lost to Novak Djokovic of Serbia, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5. However, due to the fact Mussetti did not win in Greece, he did not originally qualify to be in Italy this week, and Auger-Aliassime’s calculated risk of not going to Metz ended up paying off in a big way. Auger-Aliassime will play Italy’s Jannik Sinner, the 2024 ATP World Finals winner, on Monday.

Then the news came that Djokovic would pull out of the ATP World Finals because of a shoulder injury and Musetti was an injury replacement at world number nine. For Djokovic, the win in Greece was his 100th career ATP title. As for Auger-Aliassme, he is giving the ATP Finals a shot despite the fact his knee seems to be giving him significant issues at the moment.