Felix Auger-Aliassime has been a mainstay on the ATP Tour for several years and, despite being only 25, has already achieved an impressive level of success during his career.
While his father, Sam Aliassime, has proven a key influence in his career, long-time coach Frederic Fontang has also been a significant driving force behind the Canadian’s rise to prominence over the past decade.
Here, we look at Fontang’s journey to coaching Auger-Aliassime and the impact the 55-year-old has had on the Canadian’s career.
Playing career
Before his successful coaching career, Fontang was himself a professional tennis player.
The Frenchman won the prestigious Petits As as a junior in 1984 and was the French 16s champion in 1986, before entering the senior game.
The 55-year-old reached a career-high ranking of world No 59 in 1991, the same year he achieved the greatest successes of his career.
Fontang defeated Emilio Sanchez in Palermo to win his sole ATP Tour title, having finished as the runner-up at a tournament in San Marino earlier that year.
He reached the second round of his home Grand Slam at Roland Garros in 1997, playing the tournament seven times, and also made Australian Open and Wimbledon appearances during his career.
Fontang retired from the sport in 1999.
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Coaching career
Following the conclusion of his playing career, Fontang switched to coaching and initially worked with compatriot Jeremy Chardy, their partnership starting when the latter was still a junior.
Fontang guided Chardy to the junior Wimbledon title in 2005 and a junior US Open runner-up finish that same year, and helped the Frenchman on his journey into the senior game.
Under Fontang’s guidance, Chardy won his sole career singles title at the 2009 Stuttgart Open and reached the fourth round of the 2008 French Open, cracking the top 30 before an acrimonious split.
Fontang then worked with future WTA world No 4 Caroline Garcia while she was a junior, helping her reach the US Open girls’ singles final in 2011.
That was then followed by a lengthy and successful spell with Vasek Pospisil, working with the Canadian from 2012 to 2016.
Pospisil moved from outside the top 100 to a career-high of 25th in the singles ATP Rankings during his time with Fontang, also reaching fourth in the doubles rankings — and winning Wimbledon in 2014.
After their split in August 2016, Fontang started working with Auger-Aliassime in early 2017.
Time with Auger-Aliassime
Auger-Aliassime was just 16 years old when he and Fontang started working together, and, at nearly eight years in length, it is one of the longest-standing player-coach partnerships on tour.
He made his ATP Tour debut in 2018 and has become one of the most successful Canadian players of the Open Era, winning eight tour-level titles during his time working with Fontang.
Auger-Aliassime is also a two-time Masters 1000 runner-up, in Madrid last year and Paris this Autumn, and is a two-time US Open semi-finalist, and an Australian Open and Wimbledon quarter-finalist.
The Canadian reached a career-high ranking of sixth in 2022, though difficult 2023 and 2024 seasons saw him fall back outside the top 25.
However, he and Fontang continued working together and that paid dividends in a resurgent 2025, with Auger-Aliassime winning three titles, returning to the last four at Flushing Meadows, and qualifying for the ATP Finals.
It would have been easy for either to want to part ways amid a difficult two-year spell, but Fontang was ready to deal with any potential setbacks within their partnership.
“The progression usually goes smoothly. But at some point, there can be setbacks,” he told L’Equipe.
“For us, it was the injury that somewhat halted the process. Although we shouldn’t blame everything on that. We experimented a bit with certain tactical aspects, we tried things that didn’t work.
“Felix was taking the ball a little less early, for example. There were some back-and-forths in his tactical approach to the game.
“Felix is an intelligent player who watches a lot of tennis; he sensed things and wanted to improve during this transition to the next level. And he’s reconnected recently.”
Having started 2025 ranked 29th in the world, a strong start to the season — and a late-season surge — has seen Auger-Aliassime return to the top 10.
With Fontang set to remain in his corner, all eyes will be on how much further he can progress in the years to come.
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