Following in the footsteps of Eugenie Bouchard, Montreal teenager Françoise Abanda is rising quickly

Now that she's finally healthy, Montreal teenager Françoise Abanda is showing what she's capable of on the tennis court.

The 17-year-old won three straight matches at the $50,000 Boyd Tinsley Classic in Charlottesville, Va. over the Easter weekend to make the main draw.

On Wednesday, she defeated experienced clay-court vet Florencia Molinero of Argentina 7-6, 6-3 to move into the second round of singles.

As well, Abanda and American partner Chieh-Yu Hsu won their first-round doubles match Tuesday.

Abanda, who is currently ranked a career-best No. 274 on the WTA Tour, will move up to about No. 262 with the win, a couple of spots higher if she can win her second-round match. That's less than half what her ranking was at the beginning of 2014.

All four singles qualifiers in Charlottesville ended up randomly being placed in the top quarter of the draw - i.e., four of the eight players in that section came from the qualies.

And Abanda got a nice break Wednesday when fellow qualifier Ulrikke Eikeri of Norway upset No. 1 seed Shelby Rogers (who is just outside the top 100 in the WTA Tour rankings), 6-4, 6-4. The two qualifiers will meet in the second round Thursday.

The result isn't enough to get her into the French Open qualifying with the big girls (too late). But certainly if she keeps it up, she can aspire to the Wimbledon qualifying. She's entered in another $50,000 event on the Har-Tru courts in Indian Harbour Beach, Fla. next week, although she will still have to play the qualifying there.

At any rate, having her WTA ranking at that level now allows Abanda to play the junior Grand Slams despite not having a junior ranking, something she wasn't able to do for the junior Australian Open in January.

It seems a long time ago. But most people have probably forgotten – or didn't know – that Abanda was awfully close to making it an all-Canadian junior Wimbledon singles final against Genie Bouchard in 2012.

She was playing Elina Svitolina of Ukraine in the semis, now a solidly established WTA Tour-level player, and was ahead in the third before the long week (she made the semifinals in doubles as well) a lack of belief and her opponent's superior experience eventually caught up to her.

And she was only 15 at the time.

These are not the types of results Bouchard was posting at that age even though while comparison is inevitable, they are two completely different players and people. But it's long been expected that Abanda had the potential to make it.

Unfortunately, a lingering shoulder issue cost her at the end of 2012 and for most of the

2013 season. So her progress was set back quite bit, something that may not necessarily be the worst thing in the world, because she has plenty of time.

At any rate, she's making up for lost time in 2014.

At the start of 2014, Abanda was ranked No. 563. She kicked off her season by rolling through from the qualifying to the title at a $25,000 event in Port St. Lucie, Fla. That's eight singles matches in a week, and she came back from quickly losing the first set twice during that run.

She then qualified at a $100,000 tournament in Midland, Mich. in February, and won her first round before losing in the second round of the main draw to Swedish veteran Sofia Arvidsson.

In March, she defeated 31-year-old Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues (once ranked No. 16 in singles and No. 3 in doubles; currently still No. 27 in doubles) in the first round of qualifying at the big Miami tournament before falling 7-6, 4-6, 6-4 to Kimiko Date-Krumm who, at 43, is 26 years older than she is.

Abanda then travelled to Bógota, Colombia for another WTA-level tournament and fell in the third and final round of qualifying to Molinero – the same player she defeated in Charlottesville Wednesday.

And by exactly the same score, as well.

Every ranking point Abanda earns this year is a bonus; because of the lack of play as she addressed her shoulder issues, she has just one little WTA Tour ranking point to defend before the end of September.