Three of the eight French Open junior boys' quarterfinalists are Canadian, after a sweep in Paris Thursday

PARIS – There’s no way of knowing how far Félix Auger-Aliassime, Denis Shapovalov and Benjamin Sigouin’s tennis dreams will take them.

There are success stories at this age, but exponentially more who don’t live up to the greatness expected of them.

But at this French Open, the three Canadian teenagers are making waves as all have advanced to the quarterfinals of the boys’ singles.

Eight players are left in the draw. Three of them are Canadian. The last time there was this kind of buzz around the Canadian kids was when 18-year-old Eugenie Bouchard and 15-year-old Françoise Abanda made the final four of the 2012 Wimbledon juniors, with Abanda coming within a couple of games of making it an all-Canadian junior girls’ final. Filip Peliwo, then also 18, won the boys’ event.

The schedulers at the French Open haven’t been kind to Canadian supporters and Tennis Canada coaches as for the second consecutive day all three boys were scheduled concurrently – in far-flung corners of the site. But after Auger-Aliassime overcame an early break to defeat No. 8 seed Djurabeck Karimov of Uzbekistan 7-6 (2), 6-1, Shapovalov posted a comeback win over another promising teenager, Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2.

Auger-Aliassime was down a break in the first set, managed to eke his way out of a jam after falling behind love-40 on his serve at 5-5, got it to a tiebreaker and rolled from there.

Shapovalov was down a set and a break before he got his act together.

But the big drama of the day belonged to Vancouver’s Benjamin Sigouin, who defeated Alexei Popyrin of Australia 5-7, 6-4, 13-11 to join his countrymen in the final eight.

From 4-5 in that third set, Sigouin was forced to hold serve, or go home, five straight times. He was having issues with his first-serve percentage, but he managed hang on until he broke Popyrin, and served for the match.

That’s when having to rely on his second serve hurt him a little; he couldn’t close it out.

“It’s difficult always serving from behind, and when I broke, you kind of relax because even if he breaks back you’re still in it,” Sigouin said. “I’d been so stressed before and now it was kind of a sigh of relief. I’ve been struggling with my first serve and I kind of forget what to do, I’m so deep in the match I’m not focused on the toss or where to hit the ball any more.”

The 16-year-old got another chance at 12-11, and this time he made good.

His reaction was one for the highlight shows. Sigouin merely dropped his racquet and stared, as the reality hit him. Then, he took a tennis ball out of his pocket and threw a laser over the fence and onto the rue d’Auteuil.

Sigouin and his opponent are good pals, and the moments at the net after the win could be turned into a commercial for fair play and good sportsmanship.

The victory also signified another step forward in the improvement he’s shown the last six months, notably the ability to win those tough matches later in tournaments. “These are the ones that you have to win to push ahead,” he said. “This is a perfect example; before, I might play him in the semis of a (Grade 1) tournament and lose or something. But now I’m winning.”

Auger-Aliassime had to endure some gamesmanship from his Uzbekistani opponent, who had a large group of supporters including former world No. 9 Andrei Chesnokov of Russia, a semi-finalist here in 1989 who lost to eventual champion Michael Chang. Karimov, whose body type and mien was a little reminiscent of Bernard Tomic, pulled out all the little junior moves.

 “You play a lot of players in juniors and in the pros, and players have certain attitudes. “There wasn’t bad sportsmanship; it was okay what he did even if I didn’t appreciate it too much. But you have to learn to manage that and stay concentrated on your own game,” Auger-Aliassime said.

The 15-year-old, who lost his second-round doubles match with Shapovalov later in the day, came out in between his two matches to cheer on Sigouin in his quest to join them in the quarterfinals. By 10-10 in the third, though, he had to leave – he was freezing, as were most of the people in the stands.

Sigouin had father Hubert (a Laval, Que. native), mother Ilse and sister Alex on hand, along with the Tennis Canada people and two special supporters – Heather McDonald and her husband, members of the Jericho Club in Vancouver when Sigouin used to practice occasionally before moving to the training centre in Montreal.

They had tickets for the Novak Djokovic match on Court Philippe-Chatrier, Sigouin said, but they left it to come and cheer him on.

Sigouin turns 17 Friday, and his gift is a match against Geoffrey Blancaneaux of France and, possibly, a big group of Blancaneaux fans. While Sigouin was playing his doubles Thursday, Blancaneaux was playing a death match on the adjacent court against another French kid, Corentin Moutet.

It was like a crazy Davis Cup atmosphere – except even though both players were French, it was 99 per cent on Blancaneaux’s side. Moutet led 5-1 in the first set; Blancaneaux ended up winning it 7-5 in the third.

Auger-Aliassime plays an Argentina named Genaro Alberto Olivieri, the No. 14 seed. Olivieri easily disposed of the No. 2 seed in the third round Thursday.

Shapovalov has the toughest task; he will play top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece.

In his favour is the fact that Tsitsipas has played a massive amount of tennis over the last month, winning a big junior event and two lower-level Futures tournaments before coming into Roland Garros and playing both singles and doubles. “I know I’ve had a tough draw and I know it’s not getting much easier,” Shapovalov said. “I’m just going match by match and trying to enjoy the matches.”