First serve: Canadians on the pro tennis tours this week

The Barcelona Open ATP Tour event looked to be a good place to watch Canadian tennis this week - until Milos Raonic (foot) and Vasek Pospisil (knee) took a pass on the event.

Raonic has issues with a metatarsal in his right foot, which forced an injury retirement during his quarter-final match against Tomas Berdych in Monte Carlo last Friday.

For Pospisil, who dealt with knee tendonitis during the U.S. swing in Indian Wells and Miami, it was a matter of not having enough preparation time on the red clay as he healed up the injury. He has headed to Munich, Germany to get his socks dirty, in preparation for another tour event there next week.

As of Monday night, Pospisil was still riding shotgun on the Munich entry list, the next one into the main draw when and if someone pulls out. If not, he will have to play the qualifying.  A possible contender on that front is Frenchman Julien Benneteau, who hasn't played since Indian Wells because of injury. (Benneteau, as it happens, has won just one match in five tournaments this season - and it was against Pospisil in his season opener in Sydney).

Daniel Nestor and new partner Leander Paes are in Barcelona, where they are the No. 3 seeds in the doubles. They lost their first match together in Monte Carlo, to Stan Wawrinka and Benoit Paire. Another Canadian, Adil Shamasdin, also was in the doubles draw; he and partner Rameez Junaid lost in the first round Monday to Martin Klizan and Aisam Qureshi.

Frank Dancevic continues his swing through the Har-Tru Challenger tournaments in the U.S. South. This week, he's in Savannah, Georgia, the No. 6 seed in singles at a $50,000 tournament. Dancevic defeated American Alex Kuznetsov 6-4, 6-4 in the first round to advance. He's also playing doubles with lefty James Cerretani who, as it happens, was Shamasdin's teammate when they starred at Brown University and played on tour with him for several years.

Montreal's Françoise Abanda was entered in a $50,000 tournament in Dothan, Alabama this week but after a gruelling and emotionally-draining effort this weekend in Fed Cup in Montreal, has pulled out. She is entered in two similar tournaments in the U.S. the next two weeks.

Worth keeping an eye on is the large contingent of junior players from the national training centre program in Montreal. They are all in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France this week for a Grade 1 junior ITF tournament.

There were several noteworthy performances last week at another tournament in France, with a Grade 2 designation. Charlotte Robillard-Millette won the singles there, and reached the finals of the doubles. Félix Auger-Aliassime, just 14, reached the final of the boys' singles and lost to a player who will turn 18 in a few months. At that age, that's a huge difference.

At that same event, Jack Mingjie Lin and Benjamin Sigouin took home the doubles trophies.

To keep up on all the Canadian results around the world this week, bookmark this link.