First Serve: Canadians on the pro tennis tours this week

In tennis, it doesn't much matter what you did last week. It's quickly consigned to the archives as the next tournament gets under way.

The next two weeks, the Miami Open, which is another Masters 1000 tournament for the men (the highest level below the Grand Slams) and Premier Mandatory event for the women, will showcase the best players in the world – with the exception of Indian Wells finalist Roger Federer, who is skipping it.

Genie Bouchard, the No. 6 seed on the women's side and Milos Raonic, the No. 5 seed on the men's side, have first-round byes in the 96-player draws. So the first Canadian up will be Vasek Pospisil

And he has a high-profile opponent for his first-round match, scheduled for Thursday's day session.

The 24-year-old from Vancouver will be up against 2009 U.S. Open champ Juan Martin del Potro – and a sizeable Argentine fan contingent – as del Potro makes only his second appearance of the year, and second in the last 12 months after undergoing a second wrist surgery (this time on his left wrist).

Del Potro did make his way to Indian Wells, having signed up for the doubles and also receiving a wild card in the singles. But although he did practice, he opted to withdraw from both events.

From his statements yesterday, the Argentine seems intent on playing this one. But it remains a golden opportunity for Pospisil to advance; the winner will play Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, the No. 9 seed and a former doubles partner of Pospisil's; the two reached the 2007 junior U.S. Open final together.

Bouchard, who suffered an ab strain and went down in an emotional flameout to qualifier Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine at Indian Wells, will try to get her season back on the right track in Miami. She faces either Roberta Vinci of Italy or a qualifier in her first match.

Also in the women's draw is 18-year-old Montreal Françoise Abanda, who received a wild card courtesy of an exchange between Tennis Canada and the big agency IMG, which owns the Miami event. In return, the federation had to make available several wild cards for smaller Canadian-based events, and a qualifying wild card for this summer's Rogers Cup in Toronto, for IMG to use for its up-and-coming player clients.

Abanda will play Kaia Kanepi of Estonia, a solid player. Abanda has played little tennis this season, despite the lifting of the age-eligibility restrictions on the number of tournaments she could take part in once she turned 18 last month.

It's one of those interesting decisions; Abanda needs matches, and match wins, which she needs to raise her ranking from its current No. 235. At that level, she can't get into most WTA events, even the smaller ones.

She would have been better served to play a $25,000 tournament also held this week, up the Florida coast in Palm Harbour. The eight seeded players are all ranked between No. 130 and No. 200 – more within her range at this point in her nascent career. But apparently the glitz and glamour of the Miami event were too hard to pass up.

There is a $50,000 tournament next week on the west coach of the state, in Osprey, so hopefully Abanda will play that one. She is still a few spots out of getting in – into the qualifying, not even the main draw – but typically there will be enough withdrawals to allow her to play. There are similar events throughout the month of April in the southern U.S. – a good opportunity for Abanda to win matches and get back into the top 200.

On the men's side, Raonic has a first-round bye, then will meet the winner of a match between Russia's Teymuraz Gabashvili and Spain's Pablo Andujar – neither of which should pose a problem. Looking ahead, he could have another showdown with rival Kei Nishikori in the quarter-finals, looking for a different result after losing to the Japanese star in five sets in the Davis Cup in Vancouver earlier this month.

Raonic is Novak Djokovic's half of the draw this time; in the absence of Federer, No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal and No. 3  Andy Murray are in the other half.

Pospisil and American doubles partner Jack Sock, still buzzing from their win Saturday at Indian Wells – and the frantic rush to make a 10:30 p.m. red-eye out of Los Angeles following the win – once again will team up.

They should be the No. 5 seeds when the draw is made Tuesday; Daniel Nestor and partner Rohan Bopanna of India should be the No. 4 seeds.