First Serve: Canadians on the Pro Tours this week

Canadian Genie Bouchard has one more chance to get some match play in before the US Open. And she's first up on the stadium court at Yale University Monday at the Connecticut Open.

Bouchard faces qualifier Roberta Vinci, a veteran clay-courter who has had some good results this summer on the hard courts, but had to qualify in New Haven.

If she wins that – never a given these days – she could face No. 3 seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark.

Meanwhile, Cincinnati champion Daniel Nestor leaves his new partner Édouard Roger-Vasselin behind and will play a small ATP event in Winston-Salem. N.C. for a few more matches prior to heading to the US Open.

Nestor signed up for this one (he's partnered with Lukasz Kubot of Poland; they're the top seeds) before enjoying the success he did at the back-to-back Masters 1000 tournaments in Montreal and Cincinnati. Nestor and Roger-Vasselin reached the final in Montreal, and won Cincinnati; his doubles ranking jumped seven spots to No. 18 as of the new Monday list, edging out Vasek Pospisil (now No. 19) to regain his status as the top doubles Canuck.

Milos Raonic and Vasek Pospisil aren't playing tournaments this week, choosing to prepare for the final Grand Slam of the season.

But most of the other Canadians are in action, including an impressive 23 players (10 men, 13 women) at a combined tournament in Winnipeg this week. The women's event, a $25,000 ITF Pro Circuit event, has Françoise Abanda, Sharon Abanda and, notably, Aleksandra Wozniak. It's Wozniak's first tournament in almost exactly a year, since last year's US Open. The mens' event, which includes Filip Peliwo, is a $15,000 Futures tournament.

As well, most of the top Canadian juniors not playing in Winnipeg are in College Park, Maryland for a Grade 1 junior event. Teenage prospect Félix Auger-Aliassime is the No. 7 seed there. It's the first of three major junior events he will play; there's another Grade 1 event back home in Repentigny, Quebec the following week, and Auger-Aliassime's ATP Tour ranking allowed him to squeeze into the US Open juniors singles main draw without having to go through the qualifying.

It will be his first Grand Slam-level junior event.

Bookmark this link to follow the results of the Canadians all week long.