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Singles draws tough for Canadian Olympians Eugenie Bouchard and Vasek Pospisil
RIO DE JANEIRO – Before the Olympic-sized suspense of a 25-23 third-set marathon with multiple match points saved, there is the suspense of how the singles and doubles draws will shake out in a tennis event that might not be up to Grand Slam level but still has huge stakes.
The biggest gasp at Thursday’s draw ceremony came when it was revealed that world No. 1 Novak Djokovic and the biggest tennis star out of South America, Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina, would square off in the first round.
On the Canadian side, the news was slightly better than it was for Del Potro, but not by a lot.
For Genie Bouchard, the only Canadian woman in the singles, the first-round opponent will be a familiar one. For Vasek Pospisil, the only one on the men’s side, the opponent comes with very recent baggage.
In her first-ever Summer Games, Bouchard will play American Sloane Stephens, someone she has known since she was 12 and both were training at the Nick Saviano Academy and an opponent she has seen across the net on numerous occasions, including this year.
Pospisil will get an immediate do-over against Gaël Monfils in the first round after he had a rough go of it just a week ago at the Rogers Cup in Toronto.
“Each time we play each other it’s a bit weird, because we’ve known each other since we were 12 and had the same coach for many years. She’s playing really well right now, she’s top 20 in the world so I give her the utmost respect,” Bouchard said Thursday at the Olympic Tennis Centre. “I want to go and play some good tennis, try to do as well as I can here. We don’t have points, but we have medals at the end of the draw, so that’s the goal.”
Coach Nick Saviano, who knows Stephens nearly as well as he knows Bouchard – which is really, really well – isn’t in Rio even if many of the players do bring their personal coaches.
Pospisil also is without a coach here. But that’s because he doesn’t have one; the Canadian announced a parting of the ways with long-time mentor Frédéric Fontang the day he left for Rio.
Pospisil was a bit taken aback as he answered questions following a practice with doubles partner Daniel Nestor.
He knew who their first-round doubles opponents were, but he didn’t know who he was playing in singles. He found out from the media, and for a couple of questions after that it was clear his mind was somewhere else as he tried to process the news.
“I played a great first set (in Toronto), I had chances there and kind of let it get away from me so I’m going to try to bounce back from that just have a match from start to finish. If I can produce the same level that I did in the first set there, it’ll be good. But we’ll see how it goes,” Pospisil said. “Tough first round, but it’ll be an exciting match. It always is playing Gaël.”
Monfils clearly is in fine form, as he dispatched Pospisil's countryman Milos Raonic (who is skipping the Olympics) in straight sets in the quarter-finals.
Davis Cup captain Martin Laurendeau, who is on site supporting the Canadian men (all two of them), said the Olympics could be just the reset Pospisil needs.
“It comes at the right time. Vasek just parted ways with his coach, so he comes here, and it’s really stimulating. The athletes love it, the ambience of the Games, seeing the other athletes in other sports. It relaxes them a little, because it’s so different from the Tour,” Laurendeau said. “I think for Vasek it’s an event that could do him some good, allow him to take a deep breath, regroup, and really enjoy being here before returning to the Tour.”
In doubles, Bouchard and Gabriela Dabrowski will meet the Polish team of Klaudia Jans-Ignacik and Paula Kania in the first round of the women’s event.
Dabrowski shares a Polish heritage with the opponents, who like many Olympic teams are marriages of convenience between countrywomen, not established teams. Jans-Ignacik and Kania played three matches together at the beginning of the 2016 season, including one in Fed Cup, and lost all three. So while they have slightly more experience together than Bouchard and Dabrowski (who teamed up once long ago in the juniors), it’s not a significant advantage and neither is ranked in the top 70 on the WTA Tour in doubles.
For Pospisil and Nestor, who are seeded No. 7 in this Olympic event, it’s bit of a trickier situation. Certainly they have to think they have a shot at some hardware. But the doubles draw, while full of pick-up teams, also has some solid tandems and some elite-level singles players that match up well with the Canadian tandem's big-match experiences in Davis Cup and at the Rogers Cup last week.
The world No. 1s, Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hughes Herbert are both from France, so they’re the team to beat. The No. 2 seeds are Andy Murray and brother Jamie; Murray (a gold medalist in singles in London four years ago) said Thursday that he was just as focused on doubles as he was on singles given the opportunity to win a medal with his brother.
France’s Monfils and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who don’t play much doubles, nevertheless are formidable players and crowd favourites.
As well, Rafael Nadal and lifelong friend Marc Lopez, who have won ATP Tour titles together, are teaming up and are the No. 6 seeds.
Nestor, who will be playing in his fifth Olympics, said the decision not to award any ATP Tour ranking points for the Olympics this time around may make the doubles draw even more challenging.
“I don’t understand what happened with the points situation; they really made it tough on the players to participate. Obviously there are a few at the top who are medal contenders, but there isn’t that much incentive (to come) for the guys who are a bit lower-ranked who have played the Olympics before,” Nestor said. “I think that’s going to make the doubles tougher because the guys here playing both are probably going to focus more on doubles – or mixed, whatever event they’re playing – because it’s a better opportunity to win a medal."
Barring disaster, Nestor and Pospisil seem on course to meet the Murray brothers in the quarterfinals. The other quarter-final in their half of the draw could be a Nadal-Lopez vs. Monfils-Tsonga showdown even though a lot of matches need to be played before that happens.
“We’re playing well. Fifteen or 20 teams can win a medal in doubles, and we’re one of them,” Nestor said. “We’ll see what happens.”
