On the night before probably the biggest tennis match of his life, Félix Auger-Aliassime was tucked in bed and lights out at 10:30 p.m.

Late Friday night, it was just lights out at the U.S. Open for the gallant Canadian, and fade to black. Outshone by the best player on the planet.

Which may have been what just about everyone had predicted, yet far from the slaughter many had forecast.

Auger-Aliassime pushed Jannik Sinner to four sets, pushed him to the brink of a dropped second set repeatedly. But 1-for-10 on breakpoints was a killer.

So many junctures where the 25-year-old from Montreal had the Italian on the ropes and couldn’t tie off the slipknot.

With the exception of Carlos Alcaraz, nobody is in Jannik Sinner’s tennis orbit right now, writes Rosie DiManno. Yuki Iwamura/AP

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