It’s no understatement to say that Sunday was an enormous day for Canadian tennis.
Three championships on the identical day is a rarity for even the most important tennis superpowers. However for Canada, it was the truth final weekend.
And with some big tournaments nonetheless forward, this weekend units up a probably historic end to the season.
Right here’s what you want to know.
In Case You Missed It: Maple-Flavoured Hat Trick
The excellent news simply stored approaching Sunday for Canada as Leylah Annie Fernandez, Gabriela Dabrowski, and Gabriel Diallo all lifted trophies.
In Hong Kong, Fernandez had her greatest week of the season. It was already her greatest outcome when she reached the semifinals, however that was not sufficient for the younger Canadian who went all the best way, winning the third WTA Tour title of her career with a comeback victory over Katerina Siniakova.
Gabriela Dabrowski joined her within the winner’s circle, claiming her second title of the year with Erin Routliffe on the WTA 500 occasion in Zhengzhou.
With the win, the Canadian-Kiwi workforce accomplished their considerably stunning bid to qualify for the WTA Finals. The pair solely joined forces in August and have competed in simply eight tournaments collectively.
However what a run it has been for the pair. They’ve made essentially the most of their quick time collectively, reaching 4 semifinals, three finals together with the WTA 1000 occasion in Guadalajara, and scoring a pair of titles together with the US Open.
Their Zhengzhou victory was the ultimate push they wanted to clinch a spot within the eight-team discipline in Cancun later this month.
Capping off the large day on Sunday was Diallo winning his second ATP Challenger occasion with a dominant efficiency in Bratislava.
In the meantime on the ATP Tour, Hubert Hurkacz was the final man standing in a wild-upset stuffed attract Shanghai. He gained a loopy closing in opposition to Andrey Rublebv that noticed each males save championship factors to say his second Masters 1000 crown.
Read the full tournament recap on the National Bank Open website.
What to Watch: Felix Off and Operating in Tokyo
That successful feeling has already carried over into this week as Felix Auger-Aliassime managed to attain a victory to start out his marketing campaign on the ATP 500 occasion in Tokyo, beating Aleksandar Vukic in three units.
Seeded seventh, Auger-Aliassime will look to win consecutive matches for the primary time since Indian Wells in March when he takes on Sebastian Ofner in spherical two. The Canadian might meet second seed Casper Ruud within the quarter-finals.
Taylor Fritz is the highest seed in a Tokyo draw that additionally contains the Shanghai champion Hubert Hurkacz, in addition to Alex de Minaur, Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton.
Auger-Aliassime is staying in Asia slightly than returning to the indoor European hard courts he dominated last fall. He would have been the defending champion this week in Antwerp, the place Stefanos Tsitsipas is the highest seed.
There’s additionally an ATP 250 occasion in Stockholm.
Leylah Annie Fernandez will look to maintain her momentum going after her Hong Kong victory this week in Nanchang. She’s going to open in opposition to Hanyu Guo and will have a rematch of the Hong Kong semis with Anna Blinkova in spherical two.
Second seed Magda Linette is Fernandez’s projected quarter-final opponent. Beatriz Haddad Maia is the highest seed.
Fernandez may even be conserving one eye on the doubles attract Nanchang, as her place on the WTA Finals is within the palms of others. The Canadian and Taylor Townsend presently sit eighth within the race however usually are not taking part in this week and may very well be knocked out of the ultimate spot if Laura Siegemund and Vera Zvonareva make a deep sufficient run.
The WTA Tour is stretched throughout three continents this week, with different 250 occasions in Monastir, Tunisia and Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Underneath the Radar:
Diallo’s victory in Bratislava was the most important spotlight for Canada on the decrease circuits final week.
On dwelling soil, the Birmingham National Wheelchair Tennis Championships took place last weekend in Bedford, NS.
This week, the ITF circuit returns to Canada for the W60 event in Saguenay, the place the sector is led by Katherine Sebov and Marina Stakusic.
You may observe the Canadians in motion each week here.
.jpg)
