Dominic Thiem and Felix Auger-Aliassime face off in the first round of the 2024 Australian Open in a battle of two former top 10 players who have suffered a fall from their career heights. Both will hope a win acts as a turnaround point for their respective journeys. As a result, the match could be perhaps the most exciting first round men’s singles match in this edition.
Auger-Aliassime managed to secure the Swiss Indoors 2023 title, even though he finished 2023 as World No.29, down from his 2022-end rank of World No.6. His 2024 season started poorly though, as he lost his first match in the ASB Classic.
Thiem made it to an ATP event final in 2023 after three years, just about breaking into the top 100. He battled through the qualifiers to get into the 2024 Brisbane International main draw, only to face the great Rafael Nadal in the first round. The Spaniard ousted him in straight sets.
Against Felix Auger-Aliassime, Dominic Thiem leads the head-to-head 1-0, having beaten the Canadian in the fourth round en route to his 2020 US Open triumph. The Canadian has improved a lot since then and had two great seasons before a rough 2023. Thiem, meanwhile, has seen his stature dwindle with injury struggles. The former World No.3 is no longer the force he used to be.
While Auger-Aliassime isn’t in great touch himself, expecting Thiem to beat the #27 seed could be quite a stretch. The SportsRush predicts a win for Felix Auger-Aliassime in 4 sets or more.
The duo will clash on Sunday, January 15, not before 8:15 p.m. local time (4:15 a.m. ET). ESPN and Tennis Channel will stream the match live in the USA. The Sports Network (TSN and RDS) have streaming rights for Canada. The weather is projected to be a bit humid and cloudy with moderate winds, as temperatures will be around the 26°C mark although rain seems unlikely, which mostly means no delays.
Dominic Thiem and Felix Auger-Aliassime have had contrasting fortunes over the past couple of years
Dominic Thiem has seen a great fall over the past couple of seasons. In 2019 and 2020, he won a Grand Slam and an ATP 1000, in addition to reaching the finals of two more Grand Slam events. In both years, he also finished runner-up in the ATP Finals. However, chronic injury issues, especially to his wrist, saw his rankings fall in 2021 and 2022. With these great seasons behind him, he has earned $30,064,262 in prize money throughout his career. The Dominic Thiem net worth is an estimated $14 million at present (Celebrity Net Worth).
In the same two years, Felix Auger-Aliassime ascended new heights. He reached the semi-finals of the 2021 US Open and made it to at least the quarter-finals of six ATP 1000 tournaments. He also led Canada to the Davis Cup in 2022, also winning four ATP titles that year. However, he hit a speed bump in 2023 and faced a small downward slide.
Regardless, he still defended his Swiss Indoors trophy. The 23-year-old has minted $11,949,721 in career prize money. The Felix Augur-Aliassime net worth is estimated to be $9 million at present, as per media sources.
The winner of the Thiem vs. Auger-Aliassime clash could potentially run into Daniil Medvedev in the Round of 32. Grigor Dimitrov and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina are possible Round of 16 opponents.
