With groin injury in Lyon, Auger-Aliassime withdraws from French Open

With respect to Sam Querrey, who withdrew from Roland Garros just as American tennis fans were waking up to watch tennis, Sunday's biggest off-court news pertained to a much younger player who pulled out of the clay-court Slam. Felix Auger-Aliassime, the 18-year-old whose surging, exciting play has taken him to 28th in the world, bowed out of the tournament with a groin injury.

The Canadian felt a problem during yesterday's Lyon final, which he lost to Benoit Paire, 6-3, 6-4:

"I don't think it would have changed much," said Auger-Aliassime when asked if he should have pulled out of the final. "I think the damage was done. I was really, during the finals, I don't think I got it hurt more. I don't think I would have saved my chances of playing here. I think it happened before.

"I just, you know, in the finals, I was just trying to manage to finish the match. But even after that, I was okay. It hurt, but maybe, yeah, two days, I was waiting to see the results, so I didn't want to say that I had no chance of playing. I just wanted to get an MRI done first. After seeing the results, we thought it would be better, more careful to pull out."

Auger-Aliassime will rise to 22nd in Monday's new ATP rankings. And yet, from Tumaini Carayol:

"I want to play in Stuttgart on grass in two weeks," said Auger-Aliassime. "So to say things clearly, my lesion is only a grade 1, so I should heal within seven to ten days if I'm careful. I hope to be back for Stuttgart.

"If I had played five sets on clay, I run the risk of worsening the lesions. This is why we decided I should pull back. And I hope I will be back in a tournament in two weeks."

Lucky loser Alejandro Davidovich Fokina will replace fellow tongue-twister Auger-Aliassime in the main draw; as Auger-Aliassime was seeded, there will only by 31 men's seeds in the draws.