Picture Credit: Twitter
American Tennis sensation Frances Tiafoe bowed out of the Paris Masters quarter-finals against the red-hot Felix Auger-Aliassime. At the sixth match point, the 22-year-old Canadian sent out a beaming forehand past Tiafoe to clinch his 16th straight victory. He will next face Holger Rune, who defeated World No. 1, Carlos Alcaraz, in the other quarterfinal.
But despite the defeat, the American managed to win the hearts of the fans in the stadium with his heart-warming interaction with a ball boy during his final service game of the match. Tiafoe found time to have a fun conversation with the boy as he brought the balls for his next serve.
Tiafoe had his hands on the ball boy’s shoulders as the pair joked around with each other. The audience applauded enthusiastically in response to Tiafoe's actions, and the ball boy appeared to be elated at getting the opportunity to interact with a top tennis player in such close quarters.
Talking about the match, Felix Auger-Aliassime registered a 6-1, 6-4 victory over the fellow North American. The Canadian hit 26 winners against Tiafoe’s 14 and won 86 per cent (31/36) of points. Reacting to this win, the 22-year-old talked about how he got lucky on a few occasions which allowed him to get an advantage against a strong opponent like Frances Tiafoe.
“Of course a few times the luck was on my side, but I feel like also I played a great match,” said Auger-Aliassime. “We’ve played a few times. In New York [in 2021] it was tight sets, we played in Barcelona this year also, two not-easy sets. To come out and play the way I did in the first set, 6-1, it was great.”
