Opinion: Felix Auger-Aliassime is playing better with a hat

At the 2025 National Bank Open in Toronto, Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal, Quebec was bitterly disappointed with his performance in front of his hometown Canadian crowd. He received a first round bye, before losing to Fabian Marozsan of Hungary, 6-4, 6-4. The match will forever be remembered as one that was not shown in English on Canadian television. 

Auger-Aliassime was very disappointed with his serve. He had five double faults, while Marozsan had none.

When Auger-Aliassime came to Cincinnati for his second straight Masters 1000 series event in North America, he made a subtle adjustment. He put on a hat. One might think the reason why Auger-Aliassime put the hat on was to deal with the heat. The Cincinnati weather has been extremely hot, between 31 and 35 degrees Celsius. It might be a lucky hat now, as the Canadian number one has been playing with more confidence, and it appears this subtle change has made a significant difference.

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Like Toronto, Auger-Aliassime came to Cincinnati as a seeded player, ranked 23rd. Thus, he got a first round bye. Auger-Aliassime then beat Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina 6-2, 7-6 in the second round, before knocking out Arthur Rinderknech of France 7-6, 4-2 in the third round. In Auger-Aliassime’s win over Rinderknech, the Frenchman struggled with the heat and had to withdraw. He was wearing a headband, but not a hat.

Auger-Aliassime is serving much better with a hat. In his win over Etcheverry, he had 14 aces compared to two for Etcheverry. Then in his win over Rinderknech, Auger-Aliassime only had three double faults, compared to six for Rinderknech.

Next up for Auger-Aliassime is Benjamin Bonzi of France in the fourth round. This will be their first head-to-head meeting.

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