Home hero Auger-Aliassime withdraws from Canadian Open with back injury

[p]The Montreal native was a huge attraction in his hometown at a pre-US Open event missing both world number one [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/sinner-jannik/6HdC3z4H/"]Jannik Sinner[/a] and 24-time Grand Slam singles champion [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/djokovic-novak/AZg49Et9/"]Novak Djokovic[/a].[/p][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/auger-aliassime-felix/CzXh4LAb/"]Auger-Aliassime[/a]'s pullout sends opponent [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/droguet-titouan/A57Xet1f/"]Titouan Droguet[/a] into the third round.[/p][embed guid="0ac6a1b2-73d2-4561-a667-0a64f3ecbde8" url="https://x.com/atptour/status/2084986497296466411" social-type="twitter" /][p]"[b]I started having pain Monday,[/b]" Auger-Aliassime said. "[b]It was quite sudden. I was training here for two weeks and I had zero problems. So it happens sometimes. It has happened for me in the past.[/b][/p][p]"[b]The timing is tough, right, for it to happen here. Then I was lucky to get an extra day to prepare, as I was ready to play Tuesday night.[/b][/p][p]"[b]I thought that day by day things would get better, but I tried to go on court today.[/b][/p][p]"[b]I tried to warm up and then I basically couldn't serve really, so it was impossible for me to think about even competing.[/b]"[/p]