First Serve: Canadians on the pro tennis tours this week
The first big Canadian news of the week came in the wee hours Monday morning, when it was announced that Genie Bouchard, who flew all the way from Florida to China with the intention of taking part in the Wuhan Open, withdrew a few hours before her scheduled first-round match after feeling her concussion symptoms return on the practice court Saturday.
Bouchard will remain there for a few days, pondering her next move. Male counterpart Milos Raonic, who returned to action last week in St. Petersburg, Russia – and won the tournament – is idle this week as he gears up for two big events in Beijing and Shanghai.
So the top Canadian in action is Vasek Pospisil, who is the No. 8 seed at the ATP event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and plays a qualifier Tuesday.
Pospisil, who was on the bubble for the tournaments in Beijing and Shanghai, is now in the main draw after a couple of withdrawals. So he could potentially have a busy few weeks ahead.
Ottawa, Ont.'s Gabriela Dabrowski and Polish partner Alicja Rosolska, who defeated the team of Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Coco Vandeweghe Monday in Wuhan (the German-American pairing reached the US Open semi-finals together a few weeks ago) face the No. 2 seeds Tuesday in Wuhan.
At the Challenger level, Philip Bester and Peter Polansky are out in Tiburon, California at a $100,000 event while Sharon Fichman and Heidi el Tabakh are in the qualifying at a $50,000 women's tournament in Las Vegas, Nevada.
There also are Canadians playing in a small $10,000 ITF tournament in Charleston, N.C., including 44-year-old Maureen Drake.
On the junior front, the Canadian kids are gearing up for the junior Fed Cup and junior Davis Cup finals, which will be held this week in Madrid, Spain at the Caja Magica, the major venue where the big joint ATP and WTA Tour clay-court event is held each spring.
The events are for players 16 and younger; given the quality of the two Canadian squads, they have to be considered among the favourites to take the titles.
The boys' junior Davis Cup squad consists of Félix Auger-Aliassime, Denis Shapovalov and Benjamin Sigouin (the first two teamed up to win the US Open junior doubles this year, in their first-ever trip to teh tournament).
For the girls, it will be Charlotte Robillard-Millette, Bianca Andreescu and Vanessa Wong, a replacement for the originally-scheduled Katherine Sebov. The Canadian girls are in a pool with Great Britain (likely their toughest rivals), Japan and Colombia.
All but Sigouin (who is ranked No. 83) are in the top 30 of the boys' and girls' ITF world junior rankings.
The Americans are the defending champions in both team events. More information here.
(To keep up with all the Canadian results this week, bookmark this link).
