Canadian Auger-Aliassime forced to withdraw from Australian Open first round

The 2026 Australian Open got off to a rocky start for the Canadian men’s team.

A day after Montreal’s Gabriel Diallo and Newmarket, Ont.’s Liam Draxl lost their first-round singles match, Felix Auger-Aliassim became one of them and also lost in Australia.

Grand Slam seventh seed Auger-Aliassime defeated Portugal’s 28-year-old Nuno Borges 6-3 in the best-of-five opener on Monday, but then lost 6-4, 6-4 and retired with a 15-15 tie in the first game of the fourth set.

Borges advanced to play the winner of the first-round match between Argentina’s Juan Manuel Cerundolo and Australian wildcard Jordan Thompson.

Toronto’s Victoria Mboko was scheduled to face Australia’s Emerson Jones in the first round of the women’s singles later in the day.