This weekend marks the beginning of the tennis season’s second Grand Slam, the French Open. Top contenders include Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev, Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka. However, this year’s tournament projects to be wide open – especially on the men’s side.
A quartet of Canadians, including Felix Auger-Aliassime and Leylah Fernandez, will be among those who are hoping to pull off a big surprise and emerge with the trophy.
Let's break down Canada’s best hopes at the French Open before play gets underway on Sunday.
- Felix Auger-Aliassime
- Denis Shapovalov
- Leylah Fernandez
- Bianca Andreescu
Auger-AliassimeTo Build On Madrid
Which Felix Auger-Aliassime will show up in Paris? That is the question. Will it be the one who earned a grand total of 23 match wins in 2023 and fell as low as No. 36 in the rankings earlier this year?
Or will it be the one who won 60 matches in 2022, peaked at No. 6 in the world, won back-to-back 500-point titles on the indoor hard courts of Basel and most recently made a run to the Madrid final just a couple of weeks ago?
The answer, of course, is hard to say; you never know what you are going to get from Auger-Aliassime on any given day. As always, though, there is reason for optimism.
The 23-year-old's recent Madrid performance was encouraging and in 2022 he advanced to the fourth round at Roland Garros before pushing eventual champion Rafael Nadal to five sets. Auger-Aliassime will be seeded 21st in Paris, which should set him up nicely to get a favorable draw.
Shapovalov On Comeback Trail
Plenty of tennis pundits figured Shapovalov could already be a major champion at this point in his career (now 25 years old) after he broke onto the scene as a teenager, but that is not the case – not even close.
The left-hander did well to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals in 2021 (lost to Djokovic) but has reached only two other major quarter-finals (2020 U.S. Open, 2022 Australian Open). Things have only gotten worse for Shapovalov, who missed the second half of last season due to injury and finds himself well outside the top 100 at No. 123 in the world.
Shapovalov’s 2024 campaign does not inspire any confidence. The Toronto native is a dreadful 6-12 this season and in 12 tournaments he has not advanced to a single quarter-final.
His clay-court swing includes a third-round effort in Madrid, but he also suffered first-round exits from Houston, Bucharest and Rome. Moreover, Shapovalov has advanced past round two at Roland Garros just once and has never been past round three.
Fernandez No Stranger To Slam Success
Not too much unlike Auger-Aliassime and Shapovalov, Fernandez was – and still is – a young star with a ton of expectations. She lived up to them by making an unexpected run to the 2021 U.S. Open final (lost to Emma Raducanu), but since then life on the pro tour has become more difficult.
Plagued by injuries and inconsistent play, Fernandez now finds herself at No. 33 in the rankings after peaking at No. 13. Her match record in 2024 stands at a mere 8-10.
Despite those struggles, a player of Fernandez’s talent can never be discounted. The 21-year-old reached the Dubai quarter-finals a few months ago by beating Australian Open runner-up Qinwen Zheng. She also extended current world No. 9 Ons Jabeur to 6-4 in the third set in the Madrid second round.
It’s safe to say that Fernandez loves the big stage, too; when the lights are brightest, she often delivers. In addition to her breakout performance in New York three summers ago, the lefty advanced to the French Open quarter-finals in 2022. Roland Garros is the only one of the four majors in which she has never lost in the first round.
Andreescu Comeback At Roland Garros
Andreescu is currently on the French Open entry list, but her participation will have to be seen to be believed. The 2019 U.S. Open champion has not played since last summer’s Montreal event because of a back injury.
She was initially scheduled to play a warmup tournament this week in Morocco but ended up withdrawing. Needless to say, that puts Andreescu’s Roland Garros participation in serious doubt.
Even if she does take the court, it’s hard to see her winning even a single match. In addition to her time away from tennis, the 23-year-old is not particularly skilled on clay. Not a single one of Andreescu’s six WTA final appearances has come on this surface and she has never made it past the third round of the French Open.
Adopt Tabilo As One Of Your Own
Across the men’s and women’s fields combined, the four aforementioned players – Auger-Aliassime, Shapovalov, Fernandez and Andreescu – are the only Canadians with direct entry into the main draw. The pickings are slim for Canadian tennis fans right now, but they should not forget about Alejandro Tabilo.
It is true that Tabilo plays under the Chilean flag, but he has Canadian citizenship and played with the maple leaf by his name before switching in 2016. He might as well be Canadian, though. Tabilo admits his English is better than his Spanish, plus he remains a diehard Toronto Raptors fan. What more could you want?!
If you want a deep run at Roland Garros, Tabilo could be the “Canadian” who delivers. The 26-year-old won his first ATP title earlier this season on the hard courts of Auckland and is even better on clay. He was the runner-up at the Santiago event in February and has been on fire in May.
After lifting the Aix-en-Provence Challenge trophy, Tabilo upset Djokovic en route to the Madrid semi-finals (lost to eventual champion Alexander Zverev in three sets). The left-hander has soared to a career high of No. 25 in the world, which will give him a seed for the French Open.
