‘A disgrace of a rule’ - Felix Auger-Aliassime fumes after fiery Alejandro Davidovich Fokina Wimbledon clash
Published 06/07/2026 at 12:14 GMT+1
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Felix Auger-Aliassime’s entertaining clash with Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the last 16 of Wimbledon ended on a sour note. The Canadian battled to a 6-7 (4) 7-6 (6) 6-3 6-7 (2) 6-1 victory, but he was left incensed after his opponent called a medical timeout while he was serving for the match.
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Davidovich Fokina called the medical timeout after suffering an injury to his ankle when his opponent was close to victory in the fourth set.
Auger-Aliassime was 15-40 down while serving for the match when his rival was seen by the physio, and when play resumed, the world No. 23 launched an impressive comeback to force a decisive fifth set.
The world No. 4 held his nerve to secure the victory, and set up a mouthwatering quarter-final tie against Novak Djokovic, but after the match, the pair had a heated discussion at the net, with Auger-Aliassime expanding on his ire in his post-match press conference.
"The interactions between him and I, I don't want to get into that," the Canadian said.
"If he wants to come in here and talk about it, he can. But he knows my opinion. That's one of these things that I have differences with people in my life on tour. They know what I think. That's the most important.
"Now what I can say, though, is that I think the [medical timeout] rule has to change. I think that, obviously, as long as the rule is like that, a player will use it to their advantage.
"I think that it's very simple. If you're hurt bad, or whatever you're hurt, while the game's going on of your opponent, in the middle of the game, the opponent is serving, the shot clock is on, basically when you're hurt bad, you're forfeiting every point until you can call the physio.
”If the physio helps you recover, you play your service game.
”If you're hurt bad, then you retire, obviously. But to stop in the middle of an opponent's service game, and to be able to call the physio, I think that's a disgrace of a rule.
”I don't see any other sport where you can do that. I mark my words. It's a disgrace of a rule. So that's it.”
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Auger-Aliassime had booked his place in the last 16 with a straight-sets victory over Michael Zheng.
He will now look ahead to Tuesday’s quarter-final with 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic, who reached this stage by beating Roman Safiullin.
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Auger-Aliassime is hoping to win the first Grand Slam of his career this month.
The 25-year-old’s victory means he has matched his best performance at Wimbledon, which came in 2021 when he also reached the quarter-final stage.
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