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Canadian tennis' "Next-Gen" on display at in the French Open juniors
PARIS – There’s plenty of talk in the professional ranks about the “next generation” of rising stars who will attempt to fill the very large shoes of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and the other current greats at the top of the game.
But Canada is premiering a “next-gen” of its own at this French Open. So far, everything is going smoothly.
The best known of the bunch is 15-year-old Félix Auger-Aliassime, who made a lot of waves a year ago with his precocious play at the professional level and is the No. 11 seed in the junior boys’ event.
With him is 17-year-old Denis Shapovalov; the two surprised everyone by winning the US Open junior boys’ doubles title last September in New York as an unseeded pair. Shapovalov isn’t part of Tennis Canada’s national training centre program, and as such has had to mostly make his own way.
The latest of the national program to break through is Benjamin Sigouin, a Vancouver native who turns 17 on Friday.
He was a cut below those two – until now. Sigouin jumped from No. 18 to No. 10 in the ITF Junior rankings this week on the strength of a title last week at a big warmup tournament in Charleroi, Belgium; he also reached the doubles final there.
Sigouin is just one spot behind Auger-Aliassime in the junior rankings, although Auger-Aliassime has played a little over half as many events because he’s at the point in his development where he’s playing more pro tournaments.
Shapovalov, ranked No. 59 in the juniors, has played exclusively in the pros this season but was awarded the No. 5 seed in the singles on the basis of his ATP Tour ranking, which stands at No. 400.
All three won their second-round singles matches Thursday; of the 16 boys in the third round, three are Canadian.
That’s a pretty good effort.
Auger-Aliassime, who rolled easily in his first round, took on Orlando Luz of Brazil Wednesday. A year ago at this tournament, Luz was the No. 1 junior boy in the world. After a slow start, Auger-Aliassime won 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.
“You could say he’s a clay-court specialist. I started a little slowly, had trouble adjusting on the return of serve. But I raised the intensity a little bit, and got a lot more aggressive,” Auger-Aliassime said. “I might have relaxed a little bit, that helped, I also had much better targets.”
Shapovalov had little trouble with Patrik Rikl of the Czech Republic, defeating him 6-3, 6-1.
Sigouin backed up a win in tough conditions Monday – his first match at the junior Grand Slam level – with a 6-4, 6-3 upset victory over No. 12 seed Jurij Rodionov of Austria Wednesday.
Rodionov’s junior ranking sits at No. 11, just behind Auger-Aliassime and Sigouin.
“I knew I was playing well since about last summer, I had momentum with me, and had some good results at the end of last year So I’m not so surprised at my ranking,” Sigouin said. “I knew in the later rounds of the tournaments I really needed to step up my game, that was the problem. I always got to the semis and lost in tough matches. But last week, I really knew what to do.”
All three were outside the top 80 a year ago; they weren’t even ranked high enough to get into the qualifying tournament in Paris.
“I’m close with Felix, practice with him a lot, definitely happy for him and not surprised he’s doing so great. Me being under the radar, I’m perfectly fine with that,” Sigouin said. “We have really competitive practices, so I know if he can do it in matches, than I got find a way to do it myself.”
Auger-Aliassime said Sigouin was a “really good person – a guy who knows what he wants to do. He’s really a model for all the players at the national centre.”
Shapovalov is a little outside their bubble. But he and Auger-Aliassime get along really well even if they don’t see each other that often. The last time they teamed up on the doubles court was the Junior Davis Cup final in Spain last September.
They’re the No. 2 seeds here and advanced Thursday as did Sigouin, who is paired with a German player named Louis Wessels.
On the girls’ side, the picture isn’t quite as promising. A year ago, Blainville, Que.’s Charlotte-Robillard-Millette came into Paris as the No. 6 seed and lost to eventual champion Paula Badosa Gibert in the quarter-finals. Katherine Sebov and Bianca Andreescu (then just 14 years old) also were in the girls’ draw.
This year, unseeded Robillard-Millette lost in the first round. Andreescu, who was the No. 1 seed at the Australian Open in January, withdrew with with a stress fracture in her foot and hasn’t played since although she is training again and is expected to play at Wimbledon.
Sebov, who is the same age as Robillard-Millette (17), hasn’t played juniors since the Australian Open, opting for smaller pro events.
Meanwhile, the next-generation all have big challenges in the third round on Thursday.
Auger-Aliassime will face No. 8 seed Djurabeck Karimov of Uzbekistan, Sigouin has unseeded Alexei Popyrin of Australia, and Shapovalov has a tough one against No. 9 seed Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia.
The two actually faced off in the final of a $10,000 Futures tournament in Florida a little over a month ago – a battle of the teenagers down in the trenches of tennis.
Shapovalov pulled it off, 7-5, 2-6, 7-6 (6).
