Canadian juniors heating up just in time for the US Open

NEW YORK – The Canadian kids are coming, via the Montreal exurb of Repentigny, Que., to invade the US Open as of Sunday.

That sentence would have been little more than hyberbole over the last few years, with a few participants on girls' side, virtually none on the boys' side, and no title contenders.

But this US Open might be intriguing on that front, especially after the efforts from the young Canadian squad this week in Repentigny, site of the biggest tuneup event.

Three of the four players in the singles finals Saturday were Canadian, and the oldest is just 16.

Bianca Andreescu, who just turned 15 in June but has already played junior Wimbledon and the French Open, won the girls' singles at the prestigious tournament, which is in its 30th year and has counted among its previous champions the likes of Eugenie Bouchard, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Karolina Pliskova, Maria Kirilenko, Andy Murray and, just three years ago, Aussie Nick Kyrgios.

The No. 11 seed, Andreescu defeated another highly-regarded young Canadian, No. 2 seed Charlotte Robillard-Millette, 6-1, 6-2.

Earlier in the event, Andreescu upset No. 1 seed Katie Swan (Swan's world ranking is No. 5; Andreescu came into the week ranked No. 35) in the quarter-finals.

On the boys' side, Félix Auger-Aliassime, who received a lot of attention earlier in the summer when he competed so well with the professionals at the Granby Challenger, came into the tournament unseeded despite having just won another Grade 1 event in Maryland the previous week, a victory that boosted his junior ranking from No. 65 to No. 29.

He defeated the No. 4, No. 8 and No. 11 seeds and reached the final, where he lost 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 to Mate Valkusz of Hungary, seeded No. 5, ranked No. 18 and two full years older.

Now, they're all headed straight for the New York spotlight.

The first main-draw player arrived earlier this week as lefty Denis Shapovalov, who would have been a direct entry into the boys' singles had this week's ranking been the determining one, won two matches out on the auxiliary practice courts the last two days and has made it in.

So, on the boys' side, there will be three Canadians: Auger-Aliassime, Alejandro Tabilo (a Chilean-Canadian who lives in Florida), and Shapovalov. All are unseeded.

Shapovalov will meet the No. 12 seed Nam Hoang Ly of Vietnam in the first round, while Shapovalov drew No. 6 seed Reilly Opelka, the 6-foot-10 American who has already turned pro and won junior Wimbledon this year.

Auger-Aliassime, if he want to make noise in his junior Grand Slam debut, has a tough road. If he defeats Tung-Lin Wu of Taipei in the first round, he could meet 18-year-old American Tommy Paul, who won three solid matches here in the qualifying for the main event before losing to Italian veteran Andreas Seppi in the first round, and who also won the singles and got to the doubles final at the French Open juniors this spring.

On the women's side, Katherine Sebov will play Aleksandra Pospelova of Russia and Andreescu will play American Raveena Kingsley. Both are unseeded.

Robillard-Millette, seeded No. 7 and a quarter-finalist at the Australian Open earlier this year in her first junior Grand Slam tournament, will play Olivia Tjandramulia of Australia.