Felix Auger Aliassime dazzled Bradenton with a sensational 76 in the third set win over Aussie Alex De minaur before a packed court on two sides. Felix double faulted at 6-7 in the second set tiebreaker – to send the battle into a third set – just like the girls 18s final which was contested on the same court earlier. But the fifteen year old Canadian has a maturity beyond his years – and he was able to regroup and fend off the ultra talented Aussie who enjoyed a friendly fun warmup two courts down with his buddy Miomir Kecmanovic – I watched some of this warmup which included the Aussie asking Kecmanovic for deeper drive crosscourt backhands to his own two-hander. Felix saved three match points en route to victory in both the third round and the title match, which he trailed, 5-4 and 40-love in the third set before coming back to win over De Minaur, 6-3 6-7(6) 7-6(3)
What can you say about Felix other than he simply looks like he’s on track to superstardom – everything is there in his game and mental foundation. If you forced me with a loaded gun pointed at my fedora – the only vulnerability I might mention is the return of serve but that can be bolstered with practice practice and more practice. Felix is the kind of player and person that just stands out from the rest – he has the countenance and aura of a prince – who someday surely will be the King.
Kylie McKenzie defeated Slovenia’s Tamara Zidansek 64 in the third – Kylie first stood out in her quarterfinal win vs Hanna Chang from 1-5 down in the third. Kylie saved a match point in that game and eventually won in a third set tiebreaker – but the manner in which she battled back with incredible heavy yet consistent groundstrokes was unbelievable – she’s been in the “zone” ever since. Top seed and defending champ Dalma Galfi fell in the semis and Zidansek fell today despite winning the second set 64 – Kylie had to save seven break points in the 43 and then closed it out 64. Despite her phenomenal consistency and heavy hitting Kylie doesn’t make any grunts or noises – she just battles and battles and keeps coming at you with no drama or antics – she is the kind of player you will like after seeing her play just once.
The 12s girls final was another terrific match pitting the heavy hitting southpaw topspinner Noa Krznaric against the smaller black American Coco Gauff. Noa hits the ball a ton – she caught my eye on day one as she pummeled a local girl I hit with once – just totally bullying her around the court with her relentless baseline pounding. Noa continued her assault to the final today and she jumped to a 3-0 lead on Gauff who then battled back to 2-3 with two good drop shots that Noa didn’t know how to play – she tried to topspin both and badly bungled both shots. Both girls cried in that same game but the meltdowns were only flash meltdowns – both girls quickly got back to business and battling! Noa’s power was too much for Gauff who had very vocal support from presumably her mom who repeatedly yelled “Come On Coco” all set long and the yells turned louder and louder and eventually into full fledged screams the more Coco was losing. After Coco lost the first set 26 mom moved from the bleacher at the net to behind the baseline behind Noa in the first game of the second set and her screams of Come On COCO reached the maximum point of decibel and an official must have either thrown her out or put a sock down her throat because after the first game which Coco broke Noa to start the second set – mom was never heard from again. A quiet but brutally powerful girl Krznaric won the second set 6-3 and later told me later her favorite player is “Sharapova.”
An Indian kid with a slice forehand almost won the boys 12s – the Boys 12 winner was Xiaofei Wang of China who beat the highly unorthodox Alhogbani 64 46 64. Alhogbani was a tall lad with an incredible ability to defend and counter punch but Wang had a little too much pop and sound technique on this windy day. The girls 14s winner was Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine, who beat Margaryta Bilokin 26 64 62 – Kostyuk – a Kirilenko lookalike – used an injury break for her right shoulder and also had running conversations (in Russian) during games with a tiny little girl who could have been her little sister. Coach Andrei Kozlov’s girl Shirokova (RUS) beat Kowalski 60 75 for the G16s – after the match Coach Kozlov ran to get a Russian flag for the award ceremony but the flag waving on the fence by the practice courts was not Russian and so he gave up on that idea – the Russian flag has white on top of red and blue this flag was fed on top – another flag with the right colors was considered but the vertical stripes meant that it was France. For Kozlov he said Shirokova was “about his tenth Eddie Herr champion. 
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Scoop Malinowski · December 6, 2015 at 6:05 pm
Packed house today – biggest crowd I’ve ever seen at Herr – Nick B was in the house – Stepanek was hitting on the other side (but I didn’t see) and Pat Harrison was doing drills and feeding balls to two girls –
Dan Markowitz · December 6, 2015 at 9:52 pm
wow, what a day. If this Felix is so good though, why isn’t he turning pro? Hewitt and Nadal were both pros on the ATP Tour at 15.
sharoten · December 7, 2015 at 6:17 am
Scoop, I read that Felix was the youngest winner ever of the event. Is that so?
And Dan, Rafa wasn’t a touring pro at 15. He played a couple of Futures events, one in Valencia and one in Mallorca at that age. After he turned 16 and finished his basic high school he played some Futures in Spain but it wasn’t until 2003 when he was 16/17 that he moved up to Challengers and went on tour.
The Tennis Canada people have said they’re going to bring Felix along slowly which, IMO, is a good thing. Too many stories of young hot shots getting burned out early so I hope they do manage his career wisely. It’s only this year that he’s made the big leap to being a whiz and winning some big matches so he’s still got a lot of time and a lot to learn.
Scoop Malinowski · December 7, 2015 at 7:54 am
Why rush the fifteen year old kid to the pros? Fifteen is too young for the kid – sure he has the talent but let the kid be a kid for a few more years – remember Capriati? No rush – he will get there –
Scoop Malinowski · December 7, 2015 at 8:06 am
Yes Sharoten – it was printed in the local newspaper here that Felix is the youngest boys winner – after the final yesterday Felix shuffled out of there pretty quickly citing illness after the trophy presentation – saying just “It was a tough week – I don’t know how I pulled it off” – I sense they are protecting Felix from much media exposure which is very understandable – though I did do a Biofile with Felix early in the week after his win vs Kypson – his coach mildly and gently made it known he wasn’t comfortable with me doing a Biofile type interview though we did finish it Felix vanilla-ized his answers after the coach interrupted – I will post it later this week – they are doing the right thing by protecting Felix from the media – he’s still too young and shy to be put into the public eye – let him keep growing and maturing and ascending to the ATP Tour level – juniors is all about getting ready for that – it’s not about promotion or hype or rushing a kid to be a star —
sharoten · December 7, 2015 at 8:24 am
I agree with you that they are doing the right thing by protecting Felix from the media. Even in Canada I’ve never seen an actual interview with him, just his answers from a couple of media scrums after he so unexpectedly won those Challenger matches at 14. Also, keep in mind that English is his second language. French is his first and he’s much more comfortable speaking that.
Dan Markowitz · December 7, 2015 at 8:27 am
You’re right, Sharoten. You wonder if all of Nadal’s and Hewitt’s injuries occurred because they started out on the pro tour too early.
Scoop Malinowski · December 7, 2015 at 8:39 am
Also Rafa and Hewitt both used those old Nike Air Court motion shoes which I actually bought a pair that were actually Nadal’s after Nadal’s first US Open (bought from the guy who ran the US Open locker room – Rafa left them) and let me tell you those shoes were very poor – very suspect durability and foot protection – Hewitt and Rios used that model also – no wonder both had foot and knee issues – terrible shoe regarding comfort and durability — bad tennis shoes from major name companies have contributed to my own foot pains and injuries and I’m certain they have also plagued and bothered ATP and WTA players as well –
Scoop Malinowski · December 7, 2015 at 8:58 am
Nice reply to reddit post of this article by YaoPau: OK good comps with Young and Tomic, and I think the potential crazy-factor of kid-who-was-pushed-into-adulthood-with-promises-of-superstardom is always a risk.
Young though was as poorly managed as it gets… he didn’t win a Challenger match until the week of his 17th birthday. Before that he was 0-15 in Challenger and above main draw matches! He just took wild card after wild card and got his face beat in. (He was also just 12-10 in Futures before turning 17). So you’ve got a kid who did nothing of note at the pro level until age 17, and throw in that he never grew to 6′, and you get a borderline top-50 player. Felix had accomplished more at the Challenger level while still a 14yo.
Tomic is a better comp I think. Felix is a year ahead of him in terms of Challenger accomplishments, but Tomic was an elite junior at the same age Felix is now and stuck to the junior tour longer. Tomic is doing pretty well – he’s still the highest ranked player his age, and there’s nobody ranked ahead of him who’s younger than him.
You’re right though, the mental side of it is just massive, and just being a well-adjusted adult can mean the difference between top-10 and top-50. We don’t know enough about his makeup, but I’d put Tomic’s career at the lower end of my expectations for Felix over the next 8 years just because Tomic’s dad turned out to be completely mental.
jg · December 7, 2015 at 10:03 am
is there any match anyone would rather watch right now (other than McEnroe-Serena) than Felix-Fritz? I would much rather watch that than another Fed-Joker.
Scoop Malinowski · December 7, 2015 at 10:09 am
Those are very good matches jg but I wouldn’t mind seeing Kyrgios vs Wawrinka rematch in a major QF either 🙂
Rob · December 7, 2015 at 10:33 am
K vs W rematch in Oz. Scoop, did you or Dan see the Paul v Ali US open. The Quebec press said that for 2 sets it was epic. Felix took the first, then Paul just buckled down.
Hartt · December 7, 2015 at 11:04 am
Have really enjoyed your reporting on the Eddie Herr tourney. It’s great to hear about some of the young up-and-coming players and makes a good change from yet another article about the top pros that we get in so many tennis sites.
Am looking forward to your Biofile on Felix.
Dan Markowitz · December 7, 2015 at 12:35 pm
That’s a tricky question, JG, because the next question is where at? In a Challenger, in a slam? I’d really like to see Monfils at his best uninjured self playing anyone in a slam quarters match before Fritz-Felix. Or of course, my man Nick going against Zverev, two talented hot heads, in a big slam match.
I’d like to see Fritz or Paul v Tiafoe too.
Scoop, you’ve seen them all. Give us your ranking two years from now on these players, 1-6: Tiafoe, JD, Paul, Fritz, Felix and Kozlov.
Scoop Malinowski · December 7, 2015 at 12:39 pm
No Rob we both missed it as we only get media credentials for qualifiying and the first week – but I suppose we are fortunate to get two media credentials for each of us – was actually interested to go over and buy a grounds pass to see that epic junior showdown and from all accounts it lived up to and surpassed all expectations – unlike the infamous Hingis vs Kournikova junior showdown at US Open on grandstand way way way back in the mid 90s – which Hingis won by a double bagel – Paul was up 3-0 and had a break point for 4-0 first set vs Seppi in the US Open first round about a week before that match show it shows clearly Felix and Paul are playing top hundred ATP calibre tennis – the hard part is sustaining that level for entire matches and tournaments and week after week –
Scoop Malinowski · December 7, 2015 at 12:41 pm
Thanks Hartt – wish I could have seen more – because there is so much action going on all over the place you feel like you miss a lot and miss some great talents –
Moskova Moskova · December 8, 2015 at 10:57 am
good EH coverage scoop…..btw, quote of 2015… “sorry to tell you mate, but kokkaknis banged your girlfriend” LOL