The final of the Rotterdam tournament became a match in which both Felix Auger-Aliassime and Stefanos Tsitsipas tried to put an end to their particular cursessomething that the Canadian finally achieved after winning the title.
And it is that Auger-Aliassime achieved with his victory against Tsitsipas his first title on the ATP circuit at the age of 21 after having lost the eight finals he had played previously between 2019 and 2021, lengthening the curse that will still haunt Tsitsipas.
The 23-year-old Greek can boast of having won the Nitto ATP Finals and the Masters 1,000 in Monte Carlo, but Grand Slam titles are still elusive… and also in the ATP 500 categorywhere he is still reluctant to lift trophies.
With this Sunday in Rotterdam, Tsitsipas has lost the eight finals he has played in ATP 500 tournaments: Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell in 2018, the tournaments in Dubai and Beijing in 2019, the tournaments in Dubai and Hamburg in 2020, the tournaments in Acapulco and the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell in 2021 and the aforementioned Rotterdam Tournament this year.
Tsitsipas, who this week will play the ATP 250 in Marseille, will have a great opportunity to break this ‘jinx’ with the ATP 500 tournaments at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel de Acapulco (February 21-27)… although he will have to face rivals of the stature of Daniil Medvedev or Rafa Nadal among others.