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By Giri Nathan
[vc_empty_space height="15px"]The golden résumé of Felix Auger-Aliassime used to have one conspicuous blotch: Coming into the 2022 season, the Canadian prodigy had lost all eight finals he’d played on tour. These eight losses range widely from “totally understandable” (Matteo Berrettini on grass) to “c’mon dude” (Benoit Paire anywhere), and half of them were to lower-ranked players. Weirder still, Auger-Aliassime hadn’t managed to win a set in any of those eight contests. It was clear that his performance in them misrepresented his tremendous underlying talent. (For one, he served fewer aces and more double faults in these finals compared with his career averages.) Felix was not alone in this plight. In ATP history, only Julian Benneteau had played as many finals without winning one; the Frenchman retired in 2018 with an 0–10 record in title fights.