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First Serve – Canadians on the pro tennis tours this week

First Serve – Canadians on the pro tennis tours this week

The week actually began on Sunday in Doha, where wild card Genie Bouchard was featured in the spotlight evening match at the Qatar Total Open.

In front of a sparse crowd (did the Qataris think the main draw only began on Monday, as it does every two years since this tournament alternates with its Dubai cousin as a higher-level tournament with a bigger draw?), Bouchard survived a nervy 2 1/2 hour battle of errors with qualifier Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia.

She will play 22-year-old Denisa Allertova, a tall, hard-hitting Czech, in the second round. Allertova upset No. 15 seed Elina Svitolina on Monday. Bouchard turns 22 on Thursday.

Not too far away, in Dubai, Vasek Pospisil earned a much-needed victory. In the first round of the ATP Tour 500-level event, Pospisil bested Lucas Pouille, a French qualifier on the rise who turns 22 on Tuesday, 6-4, 3-6, 7-5. He will play either No. 5 seed Viktor Troicki of Serbia or former top-10 player Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus in the second round.

Pospisil found himself ditched by scheduled doubles partner Edouard Roger-Vasselin in Dubai, as Roger-Vasselin was one of five French players who answered the Davis Cup call and pulled out of Dubai to head to Guadeloupe early to train on the red clay. Canada will play France in a World Group first-round tie there March 5-7.

He found an excellent substitute in multiple Grand Slam champion (and former longtime Daniel Nestor partner) Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia. Nestor and partner Radek Stepanek also are in the Dubai draw; unseeded, they face No. 2 seeds Rohan Bopanna of India and Florin Mergea of Romania in the first round. Not an easy draw.

Meanwhile, Raonic was finally confirmed Sunday as a withdrawal from the ATP Tour 500 tournament in Acapulco this week (Eh Game reported this last Friday). That is the second consecutive hard-court tournament the top Canadian has passed on. The official reason is an "ongoing hip injury", although it appears to be the same injury that hampered him at the Australian Open, which then was termed an adductor issue.

Vasek Pospisil got yet another challenging first-round opponent in Dubai this week but prevailed over Lucas Pouille of France in the first round Monday. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)
Vasek Pospisil got yet another challenging first-round opponent in Dubai this week but prevailed over Lucas Pouille of France in the first round Monday. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)

Gloucester, Ont's Gabriela Dabrowski joins Bouchard in Doha, playing doubles with new partner María José Martínez Sánchez of Spain.

The rest of the Canadian women are at a small tournament in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., outside San Diego. It's a $25,000 event similar to the one they played in Surprise, Ariz., last week.

With Bouchard the only Canadian woman ranked inside the top 300 at the moment, all were in the qualifying: Aleksandra Wozniak, Françoise Abanda, Carol Zhao, and junior Katherine Sebov and Isabelle Boulais.

Wozniak, Abanda and Sebov all advanced Sunday into the second round. They'll need to win three matches to reach the main draw.

Aleksandra Wozniak is piling up the victories on the comeback trail. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Aleksandra Wozniak is piling up the victories on the comeback trail. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Vancouver's Filip Peliwo, currently ranked No. 441, has struggled at the Challenger level in the early going this season. He failed to get out of the qualifying in his first three events and, after getting straight into the main draw at his fourth tournament in Launceston, Australia, lost in the second round.

He will be playing a $10,000 ITF Futures tournament this week in south Florida before heading to Guadeloupe for Davis Cup. In all likelihood, he will be a practice partner; but with Raonic's health a question mark at this point, all bets are off.

Frank Dancevic, Peter Polansky and Philip Bester are all idle this week; with the small qualifying draws at many of the ATP Tour events now (16 instead of 32), and only two Challengers (in France and Japan), their options are limited. The only Futures event with a purse larger than $10,000 (which is the very lowest level) is in Australia.

Next week, promising juniors Félix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov will get back into the pro ranks at a $25,000 Futures tournament in Gatineau, Quebec. Auger-Aliassime hasn't played a tournament of any kind since his third-round loss in the Australian Open juniors the last week of January.

(Bookmark this link to keep track of updated Canadian results throughout the week).