The world number 25, who faces China’s Zhang Zhizhen in the first round in New York, said criticism from other players was harder to deal with.
“It’s freedom of speech at the end of the day, people can have their opinion and can say what they feel and think,” he said.
“Do I necessarily agree with what they’re saying? No, because I was in the situation and I know my truth and that’s that I didn’t know.
“But obviously you have to respect that – it’s all part of being a great player, people are going to question you and I don’t blame them for that because when we saw the replay, it was clearly an illegal shot.
“It is difficult seeing that criticism but being a top athlete you are going to be subject to certain situations where you are going to receive criticism.”
Auger-Aliassime spoke at length with the umpire during the match, arguing the point should have been his, before eventually conceding defeat.
Draper said the situation had been “very difficult for Felix as well”.
“I thought he handled it with great maturity and complete class,” Draper said.
“It would have been easy for him to fly off the hook and feel extremely hard done by, which he was at the end of the day, looking back at the slo-mo – it was an illegal shot in a big point in the match, obviously being match point.
“I know my truth and that’s that in that situation, I really did not know in that moment what had happened.”
Related News :