The 5 Canadians competing in Paris on the 2024 Summer season Olympics now know their paths to the rostrum. The official draw for the Olympic tennis occasion was made on Thursday morning, with Bianca Andreescu, Félix Auger-Aliassime, Gabriela Dabrowski, Leylah Annie Fernandez, and Milos Raonic entered throughout the 5 disciplines.
All gamers shall be participating in a number of occasions aside from Andreescu, who will focus solely on singles. Auger-Aliassime would be the busiest, competing in singles because the No. 13 seed, enjoying males’s doubles with Raonic, and teaming up with Dabrowski in blended doubles.
Each Raonic and Fernandez will participate within the singles and doubles occasions. Fernandez will be part of Dabrowski, who’s enjoying in two doubles attracts, to type the remaining doubles crew.
For probably the most half, the singles draw was sort to the Canadians as all of them managed to keep away from one of many prime title favourites till at the very least the third spherical.
Fernandez leads the Canadian ladies’s contingent because the sixteenth seed in singles. She is going to start her journey in opposition to Karolina Muchova of Czechia, the 2023 Roland-Garros runner-up, within the first spherical. If she advances, she may face the winner of Croatia’s Petra Martic and Cristina Bucsa of Spain in spherical two.
After the draw got here out, Fernandez caught a break when her projected third-round opponent, world No. 4 Elena Rybakina, withdrew from the competitors. The primary higher-ranked opponent the Canadian may face is world No. 7 Qinwen Zheng within the quarter-finals. World No. 1 Iga Swiatek could also be ready within the semis.
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Having reached the third spherical at this identical venue in the course of the 2024 French Open, Fernandez is understood to play a few of her finest tennis on clay. She reached the quarter-finals at Roland-Garros in 2022. The Lavaloise made her Olympic debut in Tokyo in 2020, dropping within the second spherical.
She can even compete in her first Olympic doubles occasion, teaming up with Dabrowski. The dominant Billie Jean King Cup pair, seeded fifth, will face French crew Clara Burel and Varvara Gracheva within the first spherical. They’re projected to face Czechia’s crew within the quarter-finals, composed of Barbora Krejcikova, who received the 2024 Wimbledon singles title, and Katerina Siniakova, who received doubles on the All England Garden Tennis Membership this yr. The Czechs have received seven main titles collectively.
As a crew, Dabrowski and Fernandez have a 7-2 document on the WTA Tour and on the Billie Jean King Cup mixed, together with an ideal 4-0 document on the crew competitors.
Dabrowski, who reached the doubles closing at Wimbledon this yr, will compete in her third Olympics, making her probably the most skilled participant on the Canadian tennis crew on the Video games. The Ottawan made her debut at Rio 2016, the place she competed in ladies’s doubles with Eugenie Bouchard, reaching the second spherical. She competed in ladies’s doubles with Sharon Fichman and blended doubles with Auger-Aliassime at Tokyo 2020.
Auger-Aliassime and Dabrowski are a part of the 16-team blended doubles draw. Having misplaced in spherical one on the earlier Olympics, they are going to search for an improved efficiency in Paris as they face Heather Watson and Joe Salisbury within the opening spherical and, if victorious, they must face the third-seeded American crew of Coco Gauff and Taylor Fritz within the quarter-finals.
2019 US Open champion Andreescu is competing in simply her fourth event this season after a 10-month break.
Andreescu shall be collaborating in her first Olympic occasion after having to withdraw from the 2020 Tokyo Video games. Utilizing her protected rating to qualify for Paris, Andreescu will face Clara Tauson from Denmark within the opening spherical, with latest Wimbledon semifinalist Donna Vekic of Croatia probably looming in spherical two. If she reaches the third spherical, she may probably meet 2023 US Open champion and No. 2 seed Gauff of the US.
The previous world No. 4 has had encouraging leads to latest weeks, reaching the third spherical at Roland-Garros and Wimbledon, in addition to the ultimate of a WTA 250 event in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, the place she defeated former world No. 1 Naomi Osaka within the quarter-finals.
Auger-Aliassime, seeded thirteenth on the Olympics this yr, had a robust clay season, reaching the spherical of 16 at Roland-Garros in June, the place he misplaced to eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz of Spain. He additionally reached the ultimate of the ATP 1000 event in Madrid, Spain in Could.
He’ll compete in his second Olympic Video games after Tokyo 2020, the place he misplaced within the first spherical of singles. The Montrealer will begin his 2024 journey in opposition to Marcos Giron from the US. As a way to attain the finals, Auger-Aliassime must probably undergo Daniil Medvedev within the third spherical, two-time Roland-Garros runner-up Casper Ruud within the quarter-finals and Alcaraz within the semifinals.
Raonic, a Wimbledon finalist in 2016 and former world No. 3, will compete in his second Olympic Video games, greater than a decade after his participation within the London 2012 Olympics. He performed one of many longest matches in Olympic tennis historical past in opposition to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, dropping 6-3, 3-6, 25-23 after almost 4 hours of play.
Raonic has solely competed in just a few tournaments since 2021 as a result of accidents, however he has proven spectacular type in his matches with victories in opposition to Alexander Bublik, Cameron Norrie, and Roberto Bautista Agut this yr. He additionally will profit from his protected rating to participate on this Olympics occasions, the place he’ll face Dominik Koepfer of Germany within the first spherical and would probably have to fulfill 14-time Roland Garros champion Rafael Nadal or prime seed Novak Djokovic, who’re projected to fulfill in spherical two, within the third spherical.
The 2 Canadian males can even compete collectively within the doubles occasion, marking every of their first participation on this self-discipline on the Olympics. The pair have teamed up on just a few events on tour, notably throughout two ATP 1000 tournaments in the US in 2020, the place they defeated gamers corresponding to Nicolas Mahut and Jan-Lennard Struff. They may begin their run in Paris in opposition to third seeds Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul of the US.
Canada solely has one medal on the Olympic tennis occasion, that being a gold medal in males’s doubles in 2000, received by Sebastien Lareau and Daniel Nestor. Nestor was additionally the latest Canadian to succeed in the medal rounds at an Olympics, coming fourth in males’s doubles with Vasek Pospisil at Rio 2016.
The Canadian males’s crew shall be supported by their respective nationwide coach, Davis Cup captain Frank Dancevic, whereas the ladies’s crew can have the help of Billie Jean King Cup captain Heidi El Tabakh.
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