Rising Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime doesn’t see himself as a performer, but he apparently has quite a bit of talent when it comes to piano. The 18-year-old posted this short video of his prowess on the keys this week, as he spends time at his home in Montreal enjoying some time off the tour.
Quite beautiful.
Like his tennis.
Auger-Aliassime ended last year at 108 in the ATP rankings but has since stormed onto our consciousness by reaching the final at the Rio Open in February and then becoming the youngest semi-finalist in Miami Open history last week.
The soft-spoken World No.33 says the piano has been a passion of his ever since he was seven, and he thinks it can help him decompress and challenge his mind off the court.
“For the fans and people that follow me it’s cool to see someone do something other than just tennis,” Auger-Aliassime told Jon Wertheim on the SI Podcast. “It’s a big passion of mine, I’ve always played—I started at seven years old. Getting back to my parents’ house in Montreal and just playing a little bit was fun and I obviously like to share it sometimes. I’m not a big performer, I don’t like to perform, but I always like to play—it’s something I do as a hobby.”
Auger-Aliassime says he approaches the piano the same way he approaches tennis. Practice a lot and then let the instinct take over.
“In a way I think you can obviously draw parallels, because in tennis you practice a lot like in piano and then you play your partition and you just go with the flow,” he told Wertheim. “Both ways I trust my instinct. That’s the way I go about life in general. … I think at the same time it obviously helps my head just to get out of the sport sometimes and do something else. I think this whole combination is helping me in my career.”
To listen to the full podcast interview, go here: