Columnist image

SPORTSCENTRE Reporter

| Archive

"The Canadians are coming," analyst Patrick McEnroe noted during ESPN's coverage of Denis Shapovalov's win on Sunday night. 

The Canadians, it appears, are already here. With ‘here' being the top tier of the tennis world. Last year, of course, Bianca Andreescu authored the watershed moment winning Canada's first singles Grand Slam at the US Open. She breached the gates in New York and this year, with Andreescu sidelined due to injury, the men are storming through.  ​

Shapovalov beat David Goffin in four sets on Sunday to advance to his first major quarterfinal and become the first Canadian man to reach the final eight in New York in singles. 

"Honestly, it's incredible," the 21-year-old said. "The first time I heard about it was on court. It literally gave me goosebumps. I'm just so proud to represent such a great country."

On Monday, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Vasek Pospisil can join Shapovalov. Pospisil faces No. 21 seed Alex de Minaur at 11 am ET on TSN1. Auger-Aliassime aims to upset No. 2 seed Dominic Thiem in a match that won't start before 2 pm ET on TSN3. 

This is the first time three Canadian men have reached the fourth round at the same major. 

"I've been following Denis and Felix, obviously, closely this week," said the 30-year-old Pospisil, who has played a mentorship role for his young compatriots. "I see them both every day. I hang out with Felix a lot playing games and in the arcade room at the hotel so it's really cool to see. I really love those guys. Felix is just one of the nicest guys on tour, honestly. So, super thrilled to see they're doing well and it's cool to be part of history for tennis in Canada. It's an amazing time for our sport and our country and hopefully we can keep the momentum going."

While Andreescu's run inspired a legion of new fans, this year's second week hat trick in singles is helping raise the spirits of a pandemic-battered Tennis Canada. 

"It's a lot of pride for Canadian tennis, a lot of pride for Tennis Canada as well," said head coach of the men’s program Guillaume Marx, who works with Auger-Aliassime. "It's a tough year for everybody, but especially for Tennis Canada. I'm thinking of all the people that have been putting in a lot of effort lately. I'm thinking of all the people who are involved."

With the big tour events in Toronto and Montreal cancelled this summer, Tennis Canada is going to lose a little less than $17 million this year, according to president and CEO Michael Downey. 

"We unfortunately laid off 40 per cent of our staff and pretty well cut everything we do in tennis development from April on other than supporting some of the next-generation players that are at the National Training Centre in Montreal," said Downey. "We're not doing much because we couldn’t afford to be doing it and that's a very difficult situation for us. And it's not going to get easier because we don’t really know what '21 looks like."

Tennis Canada is modelling scenarios in which the next Rogers Cup is held as usual with fans, with less fans than usual and with no fans at all. They are also selling return-to-tennis kits to try and raise some money. 

Downey says Tennis Canada usually gets around $1 million in federal government funding through Sport Canada and Own The Podium, which is less than other national sport organizations. They usually don't need more because the Rogers Cup brings in so much. Now, Tennis Canada is hoping that Ottawa will provide a lifeline and Downey believes Shapovalov, Auger-Aliassime and Pospisil have helped in the lobbying efforts.  

"It's actually, to a certain degree, the best advertisement, because one way or another Tennis Canada has helped these players," Downey said. 

Tennis is an individual sport and every player takes their own journey. Coached by his mom and supported by a private benefactor, Shapovalov wasn't part of the Tennis Canada program growing up. 

"I had to do it on my own with my family," said Shapovalov, who was born in Israel, but moved to Canada at a young age. "I'm just thankful that, at that time, Canada gave my parents a home to live in and a place to grow up and be raised in."

"We can't take credit for it," Downey noted. "At the end of the day, Milos [Raonic] goes out and hits his own balls and so does Bianca and Denis and Felix, but one way or another we were there providing coaching or providing competitive structure and this is a great advertisement as we try to get the federal government to support us, because the program that helped develop these players is in jeopardy."

Everywhere you look there are positive signs for Canadian tennis on the court. Raonic, who lost in the second round of the US Open to Pospisil,  reached the championship match at the Western & Southern Open, a Masters 1000 event, right before the Grand Slam.  

Montreal's Leylah Annie Fernandez, who just turned 18 on Sunday, celebrated her first Grand Slam main draw match win in the first round of the US Open and will break into the top 100 for the first time next week. 

Ottawa's Gaby Dabrowski and her American partner Alison Riske will play a quarterfinal doubles match at 11 am ET Monday on TSN2. And Shapovalov is also alive in the US Open doubles draw alongside partner Rohan Bopanna of India. They will play in the quarterfinals on Monday in a match that won't start before 3 pm ET and can be watched on TSN2. 

The pandemic is unpredictable and there are plenty of organizations in various sectors that are worthy of government help. Downey says the government has been receptive so far, but how things shake out is hard to tell. For now, at least, Canada's tennis community has reason to cheer and dream of a bright future. 

After Auger-Aliassime was forced to retire from their first-round match a couple years ago at the US Open, Shapovalov comforted his friend by telling him they'd meet again one day at the tournament in the championship match. 

"It's definitely a potential [scenario] that it could happen this year," Shapovalov said on Sunday night before adding, “it's still very far away. There's so many great players in the draw for both of us. It's going to be extremely difficult to get that far. But I'm sure at some point in our careers we're going to be playing finals against each other, hopefully. Yeah, I mean, that would just be amazing. To grow up with a really close friend, a guy that you've been battling against for years from juniors, to go through futures, challengers, everything together, all the way to the top of the grand slam major finals, it would be a movie."

We may not be at the climax of the movie yet, but the characters are certainly being developed and the plot is advancing.  

"Next week there will be three Canadians in the top 20 [in the ATP rankings] and it's awesome," Marx said, referring to Shapovalov, Auger-Aliassime and Raonic. "It's one of the best periods in one of the most bizarre [times] ... I hope everybody in Canada that loves tennis is appreciating it."