Canadians Take Over The U.S. Open
In this week’s edition of The Canadian Corner brought to you by The Slice, we will take a look back at the first week of the US Open and look ahead to Monday and Tuesday matches for our Canadian players.
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Rebecca Marino of Vancouver, BC, and Brayden Schnur of Toronto both played in the qualification draw but only Marino was able to get past three matches and earned a spot in the main draw.
Marino faced the world number Elina Svitolina in the first round but ended up losing in straight sets but after the match in an interview with TSN said she was proud of what she accomplished.
There were two other Canadian women in the draw with the 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu and the Montreal native Leylah Fernandez. In regards to Fernandez, she went through Ana Konjuh, and Kaia Kanepi before facing the defending champion Naomi Osaka.
The Canadian Dream
That’s when she shocked the tennis world coming back from a set and break down to shock the world number three and after the match, Fernandez just called it another day at the office.
Osaka on the other hand said she would be taking another break from playing tennis and no one knows when she will be back. The Montreal native was actually able to back up that win by beating the former world number one Angelique Kerber on Sunday.
It was another three-set battle with the fellow lefty as she won the first set but again the Canadian battled back to win the second set in a tiebreaker to force a third and deciding set and winning it.
Fernandez will now face Elina Svitolina on Tuesday in her first-ever US Open quarterfinal and we will see if she is able to keep this amazing run going.
In regards to Andreescu, she had a tough first-round match winning in three sets over the Swiss Viktorija Golubic before breezing past Lauren Davis and lucky loser Greet Minnen.
She lost to Maria Sakkari in the round of 16 on Monday night and the last time they played was earlier in the year in Miami with the Canadian winning a tough three-set match.
Andresscu was on quite the streak at the Open with the fact she didn’t play last year and winning the title back in 2019 she was 10-0 and hadn’t tasted defeat in almost two years.
This past week was the first time since Miami where she had won consecutive matches and it seems every win is giving her more confidence and she is getting better and better.
The Canadian Boys
We now turn our attention to the men with Denis Shapovalov, Vasek Pospisil, and Felix Auger Aliassime and we will start with the Toronto native. Shapovalov cruised past Federico Delbonis and Roberto Carballes Baena before ultimately falling to Lloyd Harris in the third round.
That last time Shapovalov and Harris played was in Dubai this year and it was the South African who won that match as well so maybe Harris has his number.
Vasek Pospisil pulled off the comeback of the tournament in his first round with the number 28 seed Fabio Fognini coming back from two sets down to win a five-set marathon match. He would end up losing in straight sets the next round to Ilya Ivashka.
Felix On A Run
Felix Auger Aliassime was pushed in his first-round match against the Russian Evgeny Donskoy but managed to win in four sets in a match that went four hours.
He breezed by his second-round opponent Bernabe Zapata Miralles before having a five-set battle with the number 18 seed Roberto Bautista Agut and last night booked his spot in his first-ever US Open quarterfinals with a four-set win over the American Frances Tiafoe.
Auger Aliassime came back from a set down and won three straight sets to set up a showdown with another Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz who pulled off the upset of the tournament beating the world’s number three Stefanos Tsitsipas in a five-set epic.
That’s it you’re all caught up on the first week of the US Open and we will recap the tournament in the next Canadian Corner.
Elias Laradi covers Canadian tennis for The Slice from Montreal