WTA Madrid: Andreescu, Fernandez, Bouchard - three Canadians looking for (game) luck
The rise of Canadian women's tennis, which was actually considered unstoppable, has stalled somewhat. At the WTA Tour 1000 tournament in Madrid, Bianca Andreescu , Eugenie Bouchard and Leylah Fernandez are represented in the tableau with different requirements.
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Apr 26, 2023, 01:13 pm
With all the big absentees in Madrid (for men Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal or Jannik Sinner, for women defending champion Ons Jabeur) it is good that there is an athlete in the tableau from whom one would not necessarily have assumed this: Because Bianca Andreescu fell so hard in her round of 16 match in Miami against Ekaterina Alexandrova that it was suspected that the Canadian's injured ankle would make a longer break mandatory.
But: This time the injury-stricken US Open winner from 2019 seems to have gotten the curve a little faster, Andreescu enters the second round from Madrid as number 23. With Varvara Gracheva starting against China's Xiyu Wang, there could be a pretty massive stumbling block ahead. However, Bianca Andreescu has hardly left any traces of success on red sand. She would have all the means to be successful on this surface as well.
Bouchard manages qualifying in Madrid
Which at some point also applied to Eugenie Bouchard. In 2014 Bouchard celebrated her first and only tournament victory in Nuremberg, was in the final in Wimbledon and Wuhan in the same year and was able to qualify for the WTA Finals. After that, the focus of the now 29-year-old seemed to be on winning the internet via social media likes rather than matches on the competition courts.
The last entry into a final on the WTA tour was in Guadalajara in 2021, currently the world ranking list shows Genie Bouchard in position 285. That will change after Madrid, after all, mastering the qualification will not go unrewarded. Bouchard is already allowed to play in the Caja Magica against Dayana Yastremska, another highly gifted player who somehow strayed from the path to victory.
Fernandez can't confirm US Open run
This also applies to Leylah Fernandez, the third prominent Canadian in recent years. Fernandez, unlike Andreescu and Bouchard, has had comparatively few problems with injuries and distractions off the pitch. However, the left-hander was never able to confirm her run into the final of the US Open 2021 (which of course applies all the more to her conqueror from back then, Emma Raducanu).
In Madrid, Leylah Fernandez has already made her first appearance. Which was also her last in the singles: Fernandez lost 3:6 and 4:6 to the Russian Mirra Andreeva without a chance.
Here is the women's individual tableau in Madrid
madrid map