Tough Going for Canadian Tennis in The Middle East
Canadian tennis has encountered a rough patch of results as of late, with more losses than wins in the post - Australian Open stretch.
High expectations have been on the shoulders of the “core four” of Andreescu, Fernandez, Auger-Aliassime, and Shapovalov for years now, and deservedly so. But tennis is an extremely mental and confidence based sport, and even the most talented players in the world will go through stretches of despair, as some of the Canadians are experiencing now.
Andreescu loses In Back To Back First Rounds
via TSN
Bianca Andreescu has had a tough time with Kazakhs as of late, losing to Yulia Putintseva in Abu Dhabi R1 and Elena Rybakina in Dubai R1.
Now, those are not particularly easy draws, especially having to face the Australian Open finalist Rybakina on a hard court, where she is arguably the toughest player in the world.
With Andreescu sitting out the first 4 months of the 2022 season, she has a huge opportunity now to gain points with none to defend until the Porsche Grand Prix in Stuttgart, which starts April 15th.
That opportunity can bring it’s own pressure, above the normal desire to win. Andreescu is fiercely competitive, and she knows what it’s like to win at all levels of the WTA.
She still has the Sunshine double to gain valuable points and rankings, but she’ll need to hold off the disappointment from a couple of tough losses.
Leylah Fernandez Blown Out By Red Hot Swiatek
Leylah Fernandez has also had a tough start to 2023 with only 4 main draw wins in 5 tournaments player.
Mind you, she had to play 3 qualifying matches in Qatar, losing to Pliskova in the 3rd, so she hasn’t exactly had an easy route either.
At the Dubai WTA1000, she lost 6-1, 6-1 to World #1 Iga Swiatek of Poland. As I mentioned on Twitter though, this isn’t a great indicator of her level:
Shapovalov With Early Exits in Dallas, Delray Beach
Denis Shapovalov has found a rut again, after getting more consistent results at the end of 2022 and heading into the Australian Open.
Shapovalov had a tight loss to Yibing Wu (the eventual champion) in his first match in Dallas. Since Wu did go on to win the tournament, you could argue that made the loss more understandable, but still no doubt frustrating for Denis.
The next week, as the third seed again in Delray Beach, Shapovalov lost to Michael Mmoh in a 3 set battle where the Canadian went 2/10 in break points.
A frustrating start to the North American spring hard court season for Denis, but he’s capable of producing good results on the courts of Indian Wells and Miami.