First Serve: Canadians on the pro tennis tours this week
The ATP and WTA Tour have a get-together the next two weeks, uniting in Madrid and Rome for combined events that will feature all the best players in the world.
The last time that happened was in Miami, more than a month ago.
As top Canadian Milos Raonic, who had a first-round bye as the No. 5 seed, prepares for a tough opening match against Argentina's Juan Mónaco Tuesday his female counterpart, Genie Bouchard, is already out. Bouchard lost her first-round match (the women have a full 64-player draw) to world No. 22 Barbora Strycova on Sunday in another perplexing performance.
Raonic hasn't played a match for 2 1/2 weeks, since aggravating a foot issue in his quarter-final match against Tomas Berdych in Monte Carlo.
The calibre of play in Madrid is so high that Canadian No. 2 Vasek Pospisil had to try the qualifying. In the first round he drew the ultimate wild card, former top 10 player Janko Tipsarevic, who is on the comeback trail after a long absence due to injury. And he lost 6-4, 6-2.
Pospisil is still in the doubles, though, reunited with partner Jack Sock. They are the No. 3 seeds; Toronto's Daniel Nestor and partner Leander Paes of India are the No. 7 seeds. Both pairs have first-round byes.
Closer to home, Montreal's Françoise Abanda is playing another U.S. $50,000 tournament to follow up her efforts in Charlottesville, Va. last week. Abanda lost in the quarterfinals of the singles, but won the doubles title with American Maria Sanchez.
This week, she's in Indian Harbor Beach, Fla., on the east coach just south of Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral. She's unseeded and will play No. 6 seed Julia Boserup in the first round.
Two other Canadian women are making comebacks this week, after long absences due to injury.
The first is Fed Cup stalwart Sharon Fichman, who played her first match since the Australian Open qualifying in the meaningless doubles Fed Cup match against Romania two weeks ago in Montreal. Now out of the top 200 after dealing with knee and hip issues, she returns with a wild card into a $100,000 clay-court tournament in Cagne-sur-Mer, France this week.
And Heidi el Tabakh, the 28-year-old from Oakville, Ont. whose career has been spent far away from the Canadian spotlight, and been a series of stops and starts because of injuries, is trying once again. El Tabakh, who lives in Florida, has been out of action since retiring in the second round of a tournament in Toronto last October.
Ranked in the top 150 a couple of years ago, el Tabakh is currently at No. 255 and is returning to action at a $25,000 clay-court ITF tournament in Tunis, Tunisia this week.
Bookmark this link to keep up with all the Canadian results this week.
