The All-Canadian final at Roland Garros didn't happen, but 15-year-old Félix Auger-Aliassime will play for the title Sunday

PARIS – The penultimate chapter of the great Canadian French Open story was written on Saturday, but it didn’t quite go the way according to script.

It seemed an all-Canadian junior boys’ singles final was fated, and 15-year-old Félix Auger-Aliassime made the date. But his opponent in the final chapter won’t be 17-year-old Denis Shapovalov; instead Auger-Aliassime will face unseeded Geoffrey Blancaneaux and a pro-French crowd in Sunday’s final.

Blancaneaux defeated Shapovalov 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-3 in a topsy-turvy match that the Canadian led by a set and 4-2. Blancaneaux showed strong mental fortitude and some high-level tennis, going for – and making – some incredibly hard-hit backhands and feeding off the crowd that was nearly unanimously in his favour.

“The match was a tossup throughout the whole match, up and down the whole way,” said Shapovalov, whose legs definitely lost a little bounce in the third set as the smaller Blancaneaux sent him corner to corner and forced some errors.

Blancaneaux served for the first set twice, at 5-4 and 6-5, but was denied. “That first set, he should have had it for sure,” Shapovalov said. “He was playing some incredible tennis today; I was just trying to fight on the court.”

Shapovalov tried the technique Novak Djokovic talked about at the US Open, where the Serb tried to pretend that the overwhelmingly pro-Roger Federer crowd was actually cheering for him.

It was tough, though, when they were yelling out, “Allez, Jo!”

A few times, Shapovalov almost thought he was playing Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, (Geoffrey is pronounced “Jo-Fré” in French). “I tried to make it not affect me during the match. But for sure I think it helped him,” he said.

After a close start, Auger-Aliassime’s task ended up being significantly less complicated, as he defeated Nicola Kuhn of Spain 6-4, 6-2 with another impressive display of consistency, aggressiveness and big serving.

When Auger-Aliassime faced Kuhn, who is just a few months older, in the Canada vs. Germany final at the Junior Davis Cup last September in Madrid, he lost 6-3, 6-3.

Kuhn has since switched representation from Germany to Spain, and had some high-profile Spaniards including Juan Carlos Ferrero and Milos Raonic coach Carlos Moyá supporting him Saturday. Both are former French Open champions.

Both Auger-Aliassime and Shapovalov wanted to share the court on Sunday, a delicious prospect that unfortunately – this time – didn’t pan out.

“Of course I wanted to have an all-Canadian final, but I’m very happy for him,” Shapovalov said. “Blancaneaux played some incredible tennis today, and there was nothing I can do about it. I think today the surface suited him; he was going defence-to-offence very well today, caught me a couple of times off guard.”

After finishing some media commitments, Auger-Aliassime made his way to Court No. 1 to add some moral support. But it wasn't enough.

The boys’ singles final (which will air on TSN somewhere around 7 a.m. EDT, with the girls’ singles final to be played first beginning at 5 a.m.), will feature players born on exactly the same day – Aug. 8, the same day as Federer – but two years apart, with Blancaneaux being older.

Auger-Aliassime will be the third consecutive Canadian player Blancaneaux will try to defeat – and all that after an emotional, dramatic win over fellow Frenchman Corentin Moutet in the third round, a match that ended 7-5 in the third set in his favour and was played before a big crowd.

It got around pretty quickly among the kids that Blancaneaux’s father brought two busloads of people to come and support his son against, well, another French father’s son. So the kid did well to turn the page on all that drama and get on with the task to trying to win the tournament.

He has been a bit of a Canuck-killer in recent months. In addition to knocking off two this week, Blancaneaux also defeated Sigouin and Alexis Galarneau at a tournament in the south of France in April.

He also defeated another Canadian, Alejandro Tabilo, in the junior doubles at Wimbledon last summer.

This will be his first meeting against Auger-Aliassime.

“Felix is an incredible player and mentally strong, so I know he’ll find a way to win,” Shapovalov said.