Pretty exciting time for Canadian tennis

[jerrym]

Bianca Andreescu is rocketing ahead with her win at Indian Wells and how she is doing in Miami.

When you aren't supposed to win, it's hard to know what to do when it happens.
Take 18-year-old Bianca Andreescu and her historic win this past weekend at Indian Wells. She is the first wild card to ever capture the event, the most prestigious tournament ever won by a Canadian singles player. There was no fancy meal or waiting champagne, even if she isn't yet old enough to drink it.

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/tennis/bia...orld-1.5063102

Canada's BiancaAndreescu has exacted revenge on one of the three women to beat her in the 2019 season.
The 18-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won her ninth consecutive match on Friday, beating No. 32 seed Sofia Kenin of the United States 6-3, 6-3 in a second-round contest at the Miami Open.
Kenin was the last player to beat the 24th-ranked Andreescu, prevailing in a three-set semifinal in Acapulco, Mexico on March 1.
Since then, Andreescu has captured the BNP Paribas Open title in Indian Wells, Calif., and won two more matches in Miami. She is now 30-3 during the 2019 season.

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/tennis/mia...iday-1.5067611

[jerrym]

Lehlah Annie Fernandez and Felix Auger-Aliassime are dominating in women's and men's tennis in a way never seen before but there are also some racial issues.

Afew months ago, Leylah Annie Fernandez was far from a household name in Canada. But after a series of stunning performances at the US Open, she is the toast of the town – french toast with extra maple syrup, to be precise.


The 19-year-old from Quebec celebrated her birthday just days ago and she joins her fellow Montrealer, 21-year-old Felix Auger-Aliassime, in the semi-finals of the US Open. The pair play the men’s and women’s world No 2s in their respective semi-finals: Auger-Aliassime against Daniil Medvedev on Friday night while Fernandez faces Aryna Sabalenka under the Arthur Ashe lights on Thursday.

It’s a fine era for Canadian tennis. Since Wimbledon 2014, Canada has had six different grand slam semi-finalists – Auger-Aliassime, Fernandez, Bianca Andreescu, Eugenie Bouchard, Milos Raonic and Denis Shapovalov. What’s more Auger-Aliassime is the first Canadian male to reach the semi-finals in US Open history.


The rise is no fluke. Canada, despite being famous for winter sports, has invested heavily in tennis and the results are starting to become apparent. Even more encouraging, the players represent the country’s diversity – Bouchard is French Canadian, Raonic was born in what is now Montenegro, Andreescu’s parents emigrated from Romania while Shapovalov’s mother is Ukrainian Jewish and his father is a Russian Orthodox Christian. Of this year’s semi-finalists, Fernandez is of Ecuadorian and Filipino descent while Auger-Aliassime’s father was born in Togo.

But Canadian tennis is not without its issues when it comes to race. Francoise Abanda, also from Montreal, has been public about her struggles within the system as a Black Canadian player. In 2018, she was 40 places higher than Bouchard in the world rankings yet she says she got far less coverage and support.


“I’m not asking to be exposed like a No 1 player, I’m not asking to get the same recognition as other players who have achieved more,” she told the Canadian Press at the time. “I’m just saying that there is a minimum that sometimes I don’t even get.” Abanda was on my radar because she is one of the few Black tennis players in Canada. I was not surprised to hear her comment, and also unsurprised at how few Canadian networks or news agencies even covered her remarks.



Dr Courtney Szto is one of Canada’s leading sports sociologists. In an email, she told me that tennis doesn’t appear to have as much of the overt racism that hockey does in Canada. However, she added that we should not take too much away from the fact that racism in Canadian tennis is rarely discussed. “I think racism in tennis is a conversation predominantly pushed by Black women and we haven’t seen Canadian tennis players really embrace anti-racism with their full chest,” Szto wrote. “We don’t talk about racism in Canadian tennis because we don’t talk about racism in Canada.”

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...anadian-tennis

[jerrym]

While Fernandez went down to defeat she played extremely well against Raducanu who was the better player on the day. Both look to have great futures and Fernandez's personality won her tons of fans.

https://www.sportsnet.ca/tennis/arti...s-even-defeat/

[jerrym]

Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime beat his tennis idol Rafael Nadal, but just lost to Taylor Fritz and is now sixth in tennis rankings.

Felix Auger-Aliassime's dream of defeating his tennis idol came true on Tuesday.
After a loss to Norway's Casper Ruud to open his first career appearance at the season-ending ATP Finals, Auger-Aliassime regained his scorching end-of-season form with a 6-3, 6-4 win over top-seeded Rafael Nadal in round-robin play.

“I wasn’t sure If I would be here one day or if I could only dream of it," Auger-Aliassime said of defeating the Spanish legend for the first time.
“The age difference is huge, and it proves what a champion he is and what an example because he is still here at 36, battling against guys in their young 20s. He is a great champion and has a great attitude."

https://www.sportsnet.ca/tennis/arti...at-atp-finals/

[jerrym]

For the first time ever, 109 years after first competing, Canada has won the Davis Cup, "the premier international team event in men's tennis" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davis_Cup), showing the depth of Canadian tennis talent.

Robert Bettauer was Tennis Canada's director of tennis development some three decades ago when the federation created a vision statement with some lofty goals.
One of the top priorities was to one day win a Davis Cup title. On Sunday, Canada finally did it with a historic victory over Australia in Malaga, Spain. "I just sent [former coaching director] Pierre Lamarche a text and said, 'Mission accomplished,"' Bettauer said. A sky-high goal for a program that wasn't a tennis power at the time, Canada has slowly but surely become a player on the sport's international scene. Investments in national training centres, coaching and support staff have paid off and Canadian players have made significant inroads in the men's and women's game.

Daniel Nestor became a force on the doubles scene. Eugenie Bouchard and Milos Raonic later took things to a higher level in singles with deep Grand Slam runs in the mid-2010s.
Bianca Andreescu delivered a breakthrough with a US Open singles title in 2019 and Leylah Fernandez reached the 2021 final in New York.
In men's singles, Canada has two top-20 players in Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Joined by experienced veteran Vasek Pospisil in a deep Davis Cup lineup, Canada delivered wins over Germany and Italy to set up the final showdown with Australia.
Alexis Galarneau and Gabriel Diallo rounded out the Canadian roster. Captain Frank Dancevic pulled the strings and was a motivational force.
Shapovalov lost just six games in his opening singles victory Sunday over Thanasi Kokkinakis and Auger-Aliassime clinched it with a straight-sets win over Alex de Minaur.

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/tennis/dav...v-28-1.6667183

[jerrym]

In yet another Roger's internet failure, it lost the feed to the Davis Cup just before Canada won the cup leaving fans in the dark. What an organization!

The timing of a technical glitch that knocked the Davis Cup final off the air on Sportsnet couldn't have come at a worse time for tennis fans across Canada.
Instead of watching the dramatic scenes of the country's first-ever win at the prestigious team event, viewers were left in the dark Sunday due to an issue with the network's satellite feed.
Broadcasters Rob Faulds and Robert Bettauer, who were providing commentary from a remote studio, had to call the last few points by checking an online scoreboard.

https://www.cp24.com/sports/courting...-win-1.6171904

[shayman]

It was cringe-inducing watching the Sportsnet commentators try to bluff their way through the commentary during the final minutes of the Davis Cup. I couldn't tear myself away! Kept hoping the video would come back, but also fascinated to see them try to improvise in this awkward situation. What a low point in Sportsnet history.

I stuck with it two minutes too long though and missed the Canadian goal at the World Cup.

[kellynjk]

For the first time ever, 109 years after first competing, Canada has won the Davis Cup, "the premier international team event in men's tennis" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davis_Cup), showing the depth of Canadian tennis talent.

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/tennis/dav...v-28-1.6667183

I had watched the Canadian team earlier in the week and in the semi-finals and tried to tape the final. It's such a shame that Roger's lost the feed to the final as I'm sure a lot of fans, not to mention the families of those playing wanted to see it. But I'm not surprised as the coverage seemed like amateur hour, you couldn't even find the time etc on the Sportnet Menu when trying to tape it etc.