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FLUSHING MEADOWS, New York – It’s one thing to pull off a blinder against one of the best players in the world.

It’s another to back it up two days later, again against one of the best players in the world, and play even better.

But Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime did just that on Labour Day Monday at the US Open, dismissing No. 15 seed Andrey Rublev in three sets to make his first Grand Slam quarterfinal since the 2022 Australian Open.

Read all about it in our Canadian Press piece, right here.

Memories from a long-ago first meeting

It was 8 1/2 years ago, when Auger-Aliassime was still 16 and de Minaur had just turned 18, that the two first met.

Auger-Aliassime was ranked No. 511; de Minaur was ahead of him on the road to the ATP Tour, at No. 262.

It was the quarterfinals of an ATP Tour Challenger in Drummondville, Que., about an hour outside Montreal in the middle of the winter of 2017.

Auger-Aliassime, who had won the boys’ singles title at the US Open the previous fall, had been on the circuit mostly full-time, grinding it out in the entry-level Har-Tru ITFs in Florida. But he got a wild card into this one.

(Here’s the draw)

Two years prior, when he was just 14, he won three qualifying rounds at the same event to make the main draw, in his first professional event. It set a few “youngest ever to” marks. But he ended up not being able to play because he got injured in the final round of qualifying.

Big win for FAA over Zverev at the US Open

When the 16-year-old returned two years later, he had a two junior major titles and some 20 pro events under his belt. And the previous week in Sherbrooke, he’d won a small ITF title in nearby Sherbrooke.

But after upsetting countryman Peter Polansky in the second round (who was ranked No. 124 at the time), he had a crisis of confidence playing de Minaur.

As he said on Monday, some matches you remember more than others. And this was one that happens to really stand out in his memory.

Here’s what it looked like (we’re flashing back to those 2017 Nike duds that Roger Federer wore to win the Australian Open. But we digress).

“I even remember the thoughts I had during the match, tactical and everything. And I remember that my coach at the time, Guillaume Marx, he caught a moment where I was doubting myself and then he said to me, “No, but you’re better than him. You’re better than him”.

“It sort of gave me a wake-up call. Because he (De Minaur) was playing well at that time; he was maybe a little ahead of me. And at the start of the match, I was a bit impressed. And after that – when Guillaume spoke to me – I thought to myself right away, ‘Okay, maybe he’s not wrong! Maybe I do have what it takes to win the match!!’ And it changed my approach to the match, and I got my confidence back.”

Auger-Aliassime won that one, then lost to his pal Denis Shapovalov, who won the tournament.

Here’s what Auger-Aliassime looked like – just two weeks before that match at a $15K in Gatineau, Quebec.

And here’s an epic throwback interview with him at that event.

(The next week, he won his second pro title in Sherbrooke. The week after that came that memorable – for him – match against de Minaur).

If you appreciate the flashbacks and the quotes you can’t get elsewhere, don’t forget to click on an ad to show your appreciation. 🙂

Here’s another – the first time the two met in a Grand Slam – the quarterfinals of the 2016 junior Wimbledon boys singles.

Auger-Aliassime, still just 15, ran out of gas in the third set of that one. And de Minaur, 17, went on to the final, where he lost to Auger-Aliassime’s pal Denis Shapovalov.