|
The Canadian climbed to a career-high ranking
of 17 in a breakthrough 2019, but he was undone at Melbourne
park by his error-prone performance against Gulbis, who last
registered a tour-level win in July.
The world number 22 managed just a single win in four matches at
the inaugural ATP Cup in Australia but reached the semi-finals
at the Adelaide International warmup before coming to Melbourne.
"Every time you come to Australia the main goal is the Aussie
Open, so it's not good," Auger-Aliassime, seeded 20th in
Melbourne, told reporters. "That's what the results show.
"But at the same time I am staying calm and positive because I
feel I am not far from playing well and winning matches. My game
was really coming along well in Adelaide and I lost a close one
there...
"I don't want to lose too much belief over the results of these
first few tournaments. I'll keep my head up and keep doing what
I'm doing well and we'll see what happens next."
Fellow Canadian rising star Denis Shapovalov suffered a similar
fate on Monday, losing 6-3 6-7(7) 6-1 7-6(3) to unseeded
Hungarian Marton Fucsovics in the first round.
Auger-Aliassime, 19, had 44 unforced errors and served seven
double faults in his loss, which follows his first-round exit at
the U.S. Open last year.
"Of course. The season is just starting," he said. "This is
obviously disappointing and I haven't swallowed this yet. It's
tough to go out this early.
"I have to talk with my coaches to look in detail at what
happened."
(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
 |
|
