Auger-Aliassime, Felix (2000- )

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      Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime and Leylah Fernandez Arrive at U.S. Open

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      The semifinalists are part of a new wave of Canadian tennis stars who are changing the image of the game in their country and reflecting its increased diversity.Canada’s tennis success story continues to add chapters at breakneck pace with Felix Auger-Aliassime and Leylah Fernandez having advanced to the semifinals of the U.S. Open for the first time in their short careers.Auger-Aliassime, 21, and Fernandez, 19, are part of a new wave of Canadian tennis stars who are changing the image of the game in their country, reflecting its increased diversity.Their breakthrough in New York marks the first time Canada has had two singles semifinalists at the U.S. Open. It comes after other Canadian success at Grand Slams: Bianca Andreescu won the 2019 U.S. Open women’s singles title and Denis Shapovalov reached the men’s semifinals at Wimbledon this year.It remains a surprising tale. Canada, with its famously rugged winters, has a shortage of indoor courts and a dearth of junior players compared with more established tennis nations like the United States, France and Germany. Canada’s best athletes still tend to gravitate to ice hockey, soccer and other activities.The four young Canadian tennis stars all have at least one immigrant parent. Auger-Aliassime and Fernandez were born and raised in Montreal.“It’s great for Canada, great for Quebec,” Auger-Aliassime said on Tuesday. “I never thought a day like this would come: a little girl and a little boy from Montreal both at the same time in the semifinals of the U.S. Open. It’s special for us. I hope the people back home appreciate the moment also. We do a lot.”Auger-Aliassime is biracial. His mother, Marie Auger, is French Canadian, and his father, Sam Aliassime, immigrated to Canada from Togo. Fernandez’s mother, Irene, was born in Toronto to parents originally from the Philippines. Fernandez’s father and coach, Jorge, immigrated to Canada from Ecuador at age 4 with his family.Andreescu, born near Toronto, is the only child of Romanian immigrants. Shapovalov, born in Tel Aviv, is the son of a Russian father and Ukrainian mother.Auger-Aliassume talking with Carlos Alcaraz after Alcaraz retired in the second set of their quarterfinal match.Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times“I think we all share that immigrant story,” Andreescu said in a recent interview. “I can definitely relate to a lot of people in Canada, because I think it’s very multicultural, and I think we can all be an inspiration that way.”Sports remain an on-ramp to success in many cultures for immigrant families, and professional tennis is full of examples. The retired American star Andre Agassi is the son of an Iranian Olympic boxer; Michael Chang, another retired American star, is the son of immigrants from Taiwan. Alexander Zverev, a semifinalist at this year’s U.S. Open, was born in Germany to Russian parents.“I don’t think it’s a coincidence at all,” Jorge Fernandez said in an interview on Wednesday. “Immigrant families bring a lot of hard work with them to the court. They bring a lot of toughness and willingness to sacrifice. They may not know anything about the sport, but they know what it means to work hard.”Jorge Fernandez was a professional soccer player, not a competitive tennis player, and has taught himself about the game, much like Richard Williams, the father of Serena and Venus Williams. Auger-Aliassime’s father is a tennis coach who has an academy in Quebec City.Jorge Fernandez said he and Sam Aliassime would compare notes and exchange ideas as they watched their children practice and compete in Montreal.“We would share our experiences, our hopes and frustrations,” Fernandez said. “I think both being immigrants, we have a lot in common.”But while Jorge Fernandez has remained his daughter’s primary coach, moving the family to Florida for training purposes, Sam Aliassime ceded the coaching role to others. Auger-Aliassime has trained since his early teens with Tennis Canada, the sport’s national governing body. His coaches were former professionals like Frédéric Niemeyer and the Frenchmen Guillaume Marx and Frédéric Fontang.Fontang remains his primary coach, and in December, Auger-Aliassime also began working with Toni Nadal, Rafael Nadal’s uncle and former coach. Toni Nadal has been in Auger-Aliassime’s corner and player box in New York as a coaching consultant.“I think he’s helped me improve maybe the consistency of my game, the quality of my movement, my focus,” said Auger-Aliassime, who will face No. 2 seed Daniil Medvedev on Friday. “On one part you have Frédéric, my main coach, who has been with me since I’m very young and that knows every aspect of myself and my game. He has the long-term vision for me. You have Toni that has been in the places that we want to go one day, winning these big tournaments, being No. 1 in the world. I think he brings that belief that this is something doable.”Canadian players also have been showing each other what is possible. Eugenie Bouchard was ranked as high as No. 5 in 2014, reaching the semifinals of the Australian Open and French Open and the final of Wimbledon. Big-serving Milos Raonic, born in Montenegro to immigrant parents, was ranked as high as No. 3 in 2016, defeating Roger Federer at Wimbledon before losing in the final to Andy Murray.“I think they’re all pushing each other, and I think that’s part of it,” said Sylvain Bruneau, the former coach of Bouchard and Andreescu, who is the director of women’s professional tennis at Tennis Canada. “I think Genie helped Bianca to do well by doing what she did and showing that you can be Canadian and be at a national tennis center and develop your game there and have some success. And I think Bianca has done that for Leylah. And I know there is this feeling that everything can be achieved. Fifteen years ago, we wanted to become a tennis nation and to get really serious about development. Big resources were put in place, and I think we are now seeing the benefits.”Fernandez during her quarterfinal victory.Michelle V. Agins/The New York TimesTennis Canada has not helped all the players to the same degree. Shapovalov and Fernandez have often worked independently, but Michael Downey, the president of Tennis Canada, said the federation has provided some level of support — be it financial or in the form of wild cards and training opportunities — to all four of its young stars.“I think all this just reinforces that there is no one way for a great player to be developed,” Downey said in an interview on Wednesday. “As a federation we are there as a facilitator whether that’s developing hands-on with Felix or helping in other ways.”The pandemic has been a challenge. The National Bank Open tennis tournament remains Tennis Canada’s major source of funding, and the men’s and women’s events were both canceled last year, leading to a deficit of 8 million Canadian dollars, according to Downey.“That is a lot of money to a small federation,” Downey said. “We didn’t have the kind of reserves to manage us through that kind of loss.”There were layoffs and major cutbacks in the player development program, and the federation took out a loan of 20 million Canadian dollars. But the National Bank Open was staged this year with limited attendance, and Downey said Tennis Canada will make a profit this year.“That will make it an easier road for us to 2022 and 2023,” he said. “But at the end of the day, part of the reason we’re doing better financially is we haven’t been investing in tennis development. We’re only spending at 40 percent of what we normally spend, and we really want to ratchet it back up.”Downey, like the Canadian players, is well aware that this is a breakthrough moment for tennis in Canada, one that it is important not to squander.A sign of the times is that while this is the first year that Canada has had two U.S. Open singles semifinalists, this is the first time that the United States, the traditional tennis powerhouse, did not even have a quarterfinalist in singles.“Who could ever have imagined that?” Bruneau said.David Waldstein More

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      Carlos Alcaraz’s Stirring U.S. Open Run Ends in the Quarterfinals

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      Alcaraz, an 18-year-old Spaniard, beat two seeded players in New York but retired with an injury midway through the second set on Tuesday night.Carlos Alcaraz’s stunning run at the U.S. Open came to a sudden and surprising end on Tuesday night when the 18-year-old from Spain retired from his quarterfinal match against Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada midway through the second set.Auger-Aliassime took the first set, 6-3, and was leading 3-1 in the second set when Alcaraz approached the umpire and informed him that he was retiring from the match with an injury.“I was expecting a tough battle,” a surprised Auger-Aliassime said of Alcaraz who, but for a handful of points, played the Canadian nearly to a draw in the first set. “I didn’t see it coming.”Alcaraz came into the match after two five-setters, against the third-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas and the German qualifier Peter Gojowczyk. Alcaraz wore bandages on the upper part of both of his legs but appeared to be moving well for most of the night. After the third game of the second set, Alcaraz had a brief examination with a medical trainer, but there was little other indication that his discomfort was serious enough that it might require him to retire from the match.Alcaraz and Auger-Aliassime, 21, played a tight first set, with Auger-Aliassime having just a slight edge over Alcaraz, who has been nicknamed “the next Rafa” — a reference to his countryman, Rafael Nadal, the winner of 20 Grand Slam tournament singles titles.Auger-Aliassime played a nearly flawless first set that included six aces. He also rushed the net 10 times and won eight of those points, a particularly aggressive strategy against a player known for hitting the ball as hard as anyone in the game.Alcaraz was good but not great, lacing the occasional screaming winner down the line. But he never quite found the rhythm or the feel of the ball that he displayed in his best moments in this tournament, especially during his upset of Tsitsipas to announce himself to the world.Alcaraz was one of three teenagers who made the quarterfinals at the 2021 U.S. Open. Leylah Fernandez, a 19-year-old Canadian, booked her spot to the semifinals on Tuesday when she beat Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, the fifth seed.Emma Raducanu, 18, of Britain, will play the 11th-seeded Belinda Bencic of Switzerland in her quarterfinal match on Wednesday afternoon at Arthur Ashe Stadium.Auger-Aliassime will play Daniil Medvedev of Russia, the No. 2 seed, in the semifinals on Friday. It is the first time he has made the final four at a Grand Slam tournament. Medvedev was a finalist at the U.S. Open in 2019 and a semifinalist last year. He lost in the finals of the Australian Open in February. More

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      The Teenagers Are Taking Over Tennis. That Might Not End Well.

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      The U.S. Open play of Leylah Fernandez, Carlos Alcaraz and Emma Raducanu has been exhilarating. But if the past is prelude, rough seas are ahead.It has been quite a run for the teenagers at the U.S. Open, especially a bright-eyed and beguiling troika that has managed to turn the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center into its personal playground.Like young stockbrokers who have yet to see a bear market, Emma Raducanu, Leylah Fernandez and Carlos Alcaraz are experiencing the best of tennis life: match after match of effusive crowds that chant their names and ask for selfies, passing shots that nick the back of the line, and the freedom of swinging their rackets on a stage where they cannot lose, because no one was counting on them to win in the first place.And yet, they do not have to look far to see how quickly it can all go off the rails.“Buckle up, it’s a long ride,” Shelby Rogers, the veteran American and Raducanu’s latest casualty, said Sunday when asked what advice she could offer the trio of teenagers for when their U.S. Open runs end.Naomi Osaka had just emerged from her teens three years ago when she upset Serena Williams to win this tournament. Three years, three Grand Slam titles, nearly $20 million in prize money and tens of millions more in sponsorships later, Osaka’s tournament ended this time with a loss to Fernandez followed by a tearful announcement that she will take an indefinite leave from tennis. Iga Swiatek, the Polish star who won the 2020 French Open at 19 without losing a set, spent much of her upset loss Monday against Belinda Bencic of Switzerland screaming at her coach and the sports psychologist who travels with her.By now it is accepted wisdom that tennis has a tendency to eat its young like few other sports. Managing life as a young star on the tennis tour is a physical and mental test that trips up nearly every player at some point, especially those who break through early and then are suddenly expected to compete at the highest level nearly every time they take the court.Emma Raducanu siged autographs and took selfies after defeating Sara Sorribes Tormo over the weekend.Elsa/Getty ImagesA ranking and seeding system places a number next to their name, letting them and the world know in the starkest way who should win any given match. Guaranteed payments from sponsors can relieve the burden of playing for your next meal or plane ticket. However, those contracts are often laden with incentive bonuses for winning tournaments and climbing the rankings. There is an implicit understanding that the contract will, at best, be reduced and at worst not be renewed if players don’t maintain a certain level of proficiency.The attention, from millions of fans but also from family, cuts both ways, sports psychologists say, especially in a sport that has so many parent coaches. Fernandez’s mother has had a front-row seat for her daughter’s upsets of Osaka and Angelique Kerber, the former world No. 1. She leaned over the rails and screamed when Fernandez prevailed on the biggest points. Success naturally brings that kind of enthusiasm but can also produce a fear that the love will vanish if the winning stops.Fernandez’s father, Jorge, doubles as her coach. He is at home in Florida with her younger sister, she said, but he calls every day with a game plan for the next match, “just telling me what to do in the day before, and then he trusts in me and in my game, that I’m going to execute it as much as I can.”They may not be exhibiting poise under pressure as much as they are playing without pressure, which allows them to swing freely without the fear of not living up to expectations.Carlos Alcaraz and Leylah Fernandez continued to impress with their play into the second week at the U.S. Open.Frank Franklin II/Associated PressJohn Minchillo/Associated Press“I think it’s just the young people” who can play this way, Kerber said Sunday after Fernandez bested her in three sets with blistering forehands and fearless serves at the corners of the service box. Kerber, 33, has won three Grand Slam titles and was ranked No. 1 as recently as 2017. For several years she has battled injuries, inconsistency and the idea that she should still be at the top of the sport.“Playing completely without pressure, in this position, it’s impossible, but I wish,” she said.Oddly, for much of the past decade, players, coaches and tennis officials generally accepted that the sport had moved beyond teenagers. Equipment that allowed for powerful shots from previously impossible angles extended points and matches, accentuating the importance of mature strength and conditioning to a degree that made it too hard for teenagers to compete at the top level of the game, especially on the men’s side.Then Coco Gauff, the rising American, started winning matches at Wimbledon in 2019, when she was just 15. Now a collection of her physically advanced peers are making their mark.Raducanu beat Rogers in her debut in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday. On Tuesday, Fernandez plays Elina Svitolina of Ukraine in the quarterfinals, while Alcaraz takes on Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada.Raducanu, who is in her first summer of playing top level competitions, impressed once again Monday. She dropped the first two games, then reeled off 11 of the next 12 games and won 6-2, 6-1, showing off her exquisite combination of graceful athleticism and smooth, lacing groundstrokes. She has lost a combined total of just four games in her last two matches. When Rogers’ last ball settled into the net, Raducanu dropped her racket, fell to her knees and covered her eyes in disbelief.Young fans waited for Fernandez after her match on Sunday.Elsa/Getty ImagesMartin Blackman, the general manager for player development at the United States Tennis Association, said in recent years the better, and more physically developed, older teenagers had begun to shun junior tournaments, instead cutting their teeth in low-level professional events, while still finding a balance between competition, training and rest.“So they come in under the radar and then they emerge on the big stage,” he said.There is nothing that can come close to guaranteeing that they will not succumb to the challenges of the game — being on the road for months on end, living up to rising expectations, and dealing with the inevitable losses and physical ailments.“It is a perilous prospect,” said David Law, a tennis commentator for the BBC who previously worked for ATP, said Sunday as he settled in for Raducanu’s match. “It can go wrong. We’ve seen it go wrong.”Law does not have to look far to be reminded of that. One of his BBC colleagues is Laura Robson, who at 18 made the fourth round of the U.S. Open in 2012 with wins over Kim Clijsters, one of the top players in the world, and Li Na, the Chinese star. She appeared on her way to greatness. Two years later she was battling a wrist injury from which she would never fully recover.Raducanu during her upset win on Monday.Danielle Parhizkaran/USA Today Sports, via ReutersFrances Tiafoe, the 23-year-old American, spoke Sunday night after his fourth-round loss to Auger-Aliassime about his efforts to work his way back from the hype surrounding his quick rise into the top 50 in 2018, when he was seen as the savior of American men’s tennis.“I thought I was just going to just keep going,” he said. “It doesn’t work like that. Same work you did to get up there, the same work you need to keep going, keep working harder.”Despite the cautionary tales, it is nearly impossible not to be swept up in the excitement of watching new talent burst onto the scene at one of the biggest showcases in sports. It is a breathless experience that tennis has long thrived on.Alcaraz, a Spaniard already burdened with the nickname “the Next Rafa,” a reference to his countryman, the 20-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal, said he knows that he has become a subject of fascination back home over the past few days.“I’m trying not to think about this,” he said Sunday after beating Peter Gojowczyk of Germany in the fourth round, his second consecutive five-set win. “Just focus on New York, on every day here.”That is a good start, said Mary Carillo, the tennis commentator and former Grand Slam doubles champion. Carillo has seen tennis crack so many rising stars, from Andrea Jaeger, who tanked matches, to Mardy Fish, who battled anxiety and mental illness at the peak of his career. Her heart sinks every time she sees players checking their phones for what is being said about them on social media as soon as they walk off the court.Survival, she said, comes down to the stuff we learn in kindergarten: Get enough sleep; don’t talk to strangers; don’t listen to what they say about you; stay away from bad people.“You really better make sure you have the right people on your ball club,” Carillo said. “People who understand your values, your ambitions, how much you can take and most importantly when you need some time to step away.” More

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      What to Watch on Sunday at the U.S. Open

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      Barbora Krejcikova and Garbiñe Muguruza meet in a battle of players ranked in the top 10 in the world. Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime plays Frances Tiafoe.How to watch: From noon to 6 p.m. Eastern time on ESPN, 7 to 11 p.m. on ESPN2, and streaming on the ESPN app. In Canada, on TSN from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., and streaming on TSN.ca and the TSN app.Matches to keep an eye on.Because of the number of matches cycling through courts, the times for individual matchups are estimates and may fluctuate based on when earlier play is completed. All times are Eastern.ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM | NoonElina Svitolina vs. Simona HalepElina Svitolina, the fifth seed, has never been past the semifinals of a Grand Slam event, while Simona Halep, the 12th seed, has won two major titles on the “natural surfaces,” grass and red clay. The two stars have met nine times on tour, and Svitolina holds a slight edge, with five victories. Although both missed out on the U.S. Open last year, they have had plenty of experience in Arthur Ashe Stadium and will be sure to provide a wonderful match to start the day.ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM | 7 p.m.Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Frances TiafoeOn Friday night, both Felix Auger-Aliassime and Frances Tiafoe battled opponents for five sets under the lights of the two main stadiums at Flushing Meadows. Tiafoe upset the fifth seed, Andrey Rublev, in a tight match; Tiafoe won 150 points, while Rublev won 148, and every other stat line provided similar margins. Auger-Aliassime pushed past Roberto Bautista Agut, the 18th seed, riding behind a dominant service performance that included 27 aces. As the two heavy hitters face off, viewers can expect an explosive match under the lights.ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM | 8 p.m.Barbora Krejcikova vs. Garbiñe MuguruzaThe WTA tour has been defined by a lack of predictability. New stars appear, and consistent champions struggle through major events. In contrast, this year’s U.S. Open has been a much more favorite-friendly venue. Today’s match between Barbora Krejcikova and Garbiñe Muguruza will be the first since the 2020 Australian Open played between top 10 players at a major. Krejcikova won the French Open this year, and Muguruza has won two Grand Slam events, making this a particularly well-matched pair; neither will be hindered by the nerves that can accompany a deep run at a major tournament.Garbiñe Muguruza of Spain playing in a first-round match on Monday.Elsa/Getty ImagesLouis Armstrong STADIUM | 1 p.m.Leylah Fernandez vs. Angelique KerberLeylah Fernandez knocked out Naomi Osaka in a three-set battle on Friday night, outlasting the defending champion. Fernandez won her first WTA title on hard courts at the Monterrey Open in March and has backed up her breakthrough year with fearless ball striking.Angelique Kerber, a three-time major champion, reached the semifinals at Wimbledon, her first time past the fourth round of a major since her victory at Wimbledon in 2018. Kerber has faced tough opposition through the first three rounds but has looked thoroughly in control, using her counterpunching style of play to push around more aggressive opponents.Sleeper match of the day.Grandstand | 5 p.m.Carlos Alcaraz Garfia vs. Peter GojowczykPeter Gojowczyk, ranked No. 141, upset Ugo Humbert, the 23rd seed, in the first round after a grueling set of qualifying matches to get into the main draw. Having never been past the second round of a Grand Slam event, even with 17 main draw appearances, Gojowczyk is flying in rarefied air.Carlos Alcaraz Garfia broke into the public consciousness on Friday after a career-defining upset over the third seed, Stefanos Tsitsipas. The 18-year-old Alcaraz played a near-perfect match to reach the fourth round of a major event for the first time, using his flat baseline shots to power past Tsitsipas, a former ATP Tour Finals champion.As this is the only main draw singles match out on the grounds today, expect New York fans to pull for either the veteran underdog or the young star based on whichever will help elongate the match. More

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      Canadian Tennis Players Excel at the U.S. Open

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      Canada’s high-performance tennis program is achieving its goal of producing elite players, several of whom have advanced at the U.S. Open.The Canadian flag is everywhere at the U.S. Open, where Canadian players are winning on courts across the grounds and beyond.On Saturday, Bianca Andreescu won in Louis Armstrong Stadium while Denis Shapovalov waited to play there in the night session. On Friday, Felix Auger-Aliassime beat Roberto Bautista Agut in Armstrong, Vasek Pospisil won at doubles on Court 10, and three Canadian girls won junior qualifying matches at the Cary Leeds Center in the Bronx.The biggest win took place in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Friday, when Leylah Fernandez, a French Open junior champion two years ago, beat No. 3 seed Naomi Osaka to muscle her way toward the front of Canada’s booming tennis program, an assembly line of players that includes four men in the top 60 and six girls in the top 100 of the junior rankings.Not bad for a country with about a tenth of the population of the United States. But Canadian players are pouring over the border and making New York their temporary home.“I’m just glad that there’s so many Canadians going deep in this tournament,” Fernandez said shortly after she had showed the steely nerve it took to oust the defending champion in the world’s biggest tennis stadium. Fernandez, who turns 19 on Monday, is the latest young Canadian to captivate the tennis world, following in the path of Andreescu, who won the 2019 U.S. Open; Auger-Aliassime; Shapovalov; and, before them, Milos Raonic and Eugenie Bouchard.A country of about 37 million, Canada has made a concerted effort over the past several years to develop elite players, and it is working. Most of them pass through Tennis Canada’s high-performance development program, and many were either immigrants themselves or the Canadian-born children of immigrants.Fernandez belongs to that list, too, although her route is unique. Her father and coach, Jorge Fernandez, was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and moved to Montreal with his family when he was a small boy. Fernandez’s mother, Irene Exevea, is of Filipino descent from Toronto.Jorge Fernandez describes himself as a former journeyman professional soccer player in the lower levels of the game, mostly in Latin America. He never knew anything about tennis until his daughter showed interest as a schoolgirl.“She played some soccer in Montreal,” the elder Fernandez said in a telephone interview Saturday, “but I didn’t want her to just follow me. I wanted her to find her own passion.”That turned out to be tennis, but Leylah struggled to gain the favor of the local tennis associations. She was part of a Quebec-based development program for a while, but it dropped her, Jorge said, in part because she was tiny. She still wanted to play.“I told her, ‘It’s OK, we’ll do it ourselves,’” her father said.They plunged ahead on their own, and soon enough, Leylah Fernandez was tearing through the ranks of her age group and several years above it, winning so many tournaments that Tennis Canada officials finally invited her to train with them.But as often happens when parents hand their children over to tennis federations, there were differences of opinion, especially over how much Leylah should play. Ultimately, Jorge Fernandez took his daughter out of the program, although amicably, he says.“I told them we would meet up again,” he explained, “and look, we have.”He continued: “It’s OK to have disagreements. We all wanted the same thing, which is for Leylah to be successful. We just had a different idea of how to do it, for a while. But they have been doing great work. I tip my hat to them with all the success they have had with so many Canadians going through the program.”Bianca Andreescu playing on Saturday.Justin Lane/EPA, via ShutterstockLeylah’s mother thought their daughter would be one of those successes, too. According to Jorge Fernandez, Exevea thought he was crazy to remove his daughter from a program that provided free coaching and more. But he was committed to doing it himself, so he and Leylah and her younger sister, Bianca Jolie, who is 17, continued to train on their own in Montreal. (The oldest, Jodeci, is a dentist in Ohio and did not play tennis competitively).That left the chief bread-winning duties to Exevea, who, unlike Jorge Fernandez, has a university degree. She moved to California so she could earn U.S. dollars and stayed there for three years while Jorge tapped into his knowledge as a former professional athlete to coach his daughters.“Those were difficult years, because they only saw their mother maybe two times a year,” Jorge said. “We finally decided to move to Florida. It’s the Mecca of tennis, and we could have the whole family together again.”To learn the art of tennis and coaching it, Jorge Fernandez immersed himself in the sport, reading texts and watching videos on the internet. His goal was to cultivate a balance between work and fun to ensure that Leylah never got burned out. He taught his daughter, who is 5 feet 6 inches, to study Justine Henin, who is listed at 5-6¾, because it seemed like an appropriate blueprint for success.Despite her size, Leylah Fernandez is a potent ball striker. Her father claims that, pound for pound, Leylah is “the best power hitter on the tour,” and she derives confidence from her strength. Even before she took the court against Osaka, she said she knew she could beat the four-time major champion.“From a very young age, I knew I was able to beat anyone,” she said Friday night, before noting that it was past her bedtime.When she won the French Open junior title in 2019, Leylah Fernandez asked her father if they could celebrate at McDonald’s. Always diligent about nutrition, and in a city known for its culinary expertise, Fernandez chose the fast food restaurant as a way to splurge. Her father agreed.“It was just the two of us,” Jorge said. “It was sweet, but at the same time, the whole family should have been there. It’s one of the difficult things of the tennis life, all the travel.”Jorge Fernandez could not attend his daughter’s victory over Osaka. He was in Florida attending to business. But before she took the court, Leylah called him for the strategic game plan, and he was true to his ethos.“He told me to go on the court, have fun,” she said, and she followed the advice perfectly, flashing a brilliant smile during a relaxed but exuberant speech after the match.For a time, her family had debated moving to Ecuador so that the girls could play for that country. Instead, they retained their loyalty to Canada, and Leylah Fernandez plays on the Canadian team for the Billie Jean King Cup. On Sunday, she will play No. 16 seed Angelique Kerber, a three-time Grand Slam tournament champion, for a spot in the quarterfinals.Already, she and her compatriots have helped raise the profile of Canadian tennis a notch higher.“Our goal here is just to have fun on court,” she said, “to do our best. Hopefully we can inspire kids in Canada to keep going.” More

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      At Wimbledon, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov Stir a Nation

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      The young Canadians advanced on Monday to the men’s singles quarterfinals, one in easy straight sets, and the other in a gutty five-set victory. It feels like 2014.WIMBLEDON, England — As the Montreal Canadiens, Canada’s hope for hockey’s Stanley Cup, faced elimination across an ocean, the compatriots Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime broke through to their first Wimbledon quarterfinals within hours of each other on Monday afternoon. More

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      Future Tennis Stars Get an Early Start at the Junior Championships

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      The events often feature future stars, like Stefanos Tsitsipas and Denis Shapovalov. “I couldn’t believe the level of play,” one observer said.At Wimbledon in 2016, Chris Fowler dragged his ESPN broadcasting partner Brad Gilbert to the semifinals of the boys’ Junior Championships. They were treated to a preview of two future stars: Stefanos Tsitsipas and Denis Shapovalov, who won the tournament.“I couldn’t believe the level of play,” Gilbert recalled.That event looked like a snapshot of things to come. Shapovalov defeated Alex de Minaur in the finals; de Minaur beat Felix Auger-Aliassime in the quarters. All three have since broken into the ATP Top 20, while Tsitsipas reached the Top five.Denis Shapovalov defeated Alex de Minaur in the Boy’s Singles Final at Wimbledon in 2016.Adam Pretty/Getty ImagesYet Gilbert was initially unenthused about watching because it easily could have been a replay of the 2014 Junior Wimbledon finals when Noah Rubin beat Stefan Kozlov before both vanished into the lower rungs of the ATP Tour.The ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors is important to the development of many players 18 and under. In 2019, there were over 600 ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors tournaments, with about 8,000 boys and 7,000 girls playing at least one tournament. Its Grand Slam events are held alongside the professional tournaments.At Wimbledon this year, 64 boys and 64 girls will be competing in main draw singles. Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva, who won the girls’ singles title at the 2020 Australian Open, is still competing as a junior and will be at Wimbledon, as will the most recent Boys’ French Open champion, Luca van Assche.Winning a Junior Slam is obviously a meaningful triumph, but that does not mean it is a barometer of future success. Roger Federer and Andy Murray won Junior Slams, but Rafael Nadal showed that you can go from boy to man while barely playing in the ITF Juniors. Venus and Serena Williams, along with the recent champions Angelique Kerber and Naomi Osaka, also skipped playing in the Juniors circuit.Earlier this month, Luca van Assche won the Boys French Open. He, too, is competing in the Juniors at Wimbledon.Christophe Ena/Associated Press“A good junior career is a good start, but never a guarantee,” Stan Wawrinka, winner of the 2003 Junior French Open, wrote in an email interview. “I never even dreamed of winning a Grand Slam until I eventually did at the 2014 Australian Open,” his first of three.Jeff McFarland, creator of the Hidden Game of Tennis website, said that Wawrinka was smart to keep his dreams modest. Winning a Junior Slam is less predictive than being a top pick from college football or basketball.“Tennis has such an unstructured development system, so it’s hard to say what these wins might indicate,” McFarland said, adding that the physicality of the modern game makes it difficult to know how players will evolve when their bodies have yet to fully develop. “They may be the cream of the crop in the Juniors, but at the next level everybody is that good.”The Junior Slams have produced more top women than men in the last 15 years: the Grand Slam winners Victoria Azarenka, Simona Halep, Ashleigh Barty, Jelena Ostapenko and Iga Swiatek; the No. 1s Caroline Wozniacki and Karolina Pliskova; and a lengthy list of Top 10 players.The boys’ side peaked from 1998 to 2005, with Federer, Murray, Wawrinka, Andy Roddick, Marin Cilic and the Top 10 players Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils. The next eight years produced Dominic Thiem, who won the United States Open last year, but otherwise it was a meager crop, But since 2014, a new generation has emerged: Alexander Zverev, Andrey Rublev, Taylor Fritz and those stars of that 2016 Wimbledon tournament.McFarland said a successful pro career needed not include a Grand Slam — especially on the men’s side, where Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Federer, Murray and Wawrinka have won all but four titles since 2004 — or even cracking the Top 10. The Junior Slam winners Leander Paes and Jack Sock foundered on the ATP Tour but won multiple Grand Slams in doubles, while Richard Gasquet, “who the average American fan never heard of, has nearly $20 million in prize money,” McFarland said. “No one would call those careers a failure.”Still, McFarland said that since 1990 only half the male Junior Grand Slam winners even hit the Top 50, while only one-third of Junior Slam finalists reached that high. Girls fare better, with two-thirds of the Junior Slam winners and half of the runners-up breaking into the Top 50. (McFarland said winning multiple Junior Slams, as Azarenka and Roddick have, actually did predict higher pro earnings.)“Honestly, winning a Junior Slam doesn’t give you as much help as you might think,” said Elina Svitolina, the 2010 Junior French Open champion, who had reached No. 3 on the WTA Tour. “That’s only the beginning — you have to work so many hours on and off the court to not have the Junior mentality anymore, because when you start to play the women’s circuit it’s completely different.”Stan Wawrinka beat Brian Baker in 2003 to win the Junior French Open. “A good junior career is a good start, but never a guarantee,” Wawrinka said recently.Christophe Archambault/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesWawrinka said he saw more positives.“The pro tour is a completely different level,” Wawrinka said, “but traveling on the Junior tour helps you get used to the travel routine at a young age — the jet lag, different food and being away from home is not always easy for juniors.”Sofia Kenin, a Junior U.S. Open finalist, said having soaked up “the vibe and atmosphere” at the Grand Slams as a junior helped prepare her mentally when she won last year’s Australian Open and reached the finals of the French Open.One issue that McFarland and Gilbert raise about the Juniors as a predictor is that many top young players opt instead for low-level pro tournaments, either because they want the challenge or for economic reasons.“It’s more of a commitment to build your junior ranking — the international travel can cost as much or more than the pro tour,” Gilbert said. Winning the Australian Junior Open, he said, is less predictive than the other three majors perhaps because it requires more travel for American and European players.The result, McFarland said, is that the winners “may not be facing the best talent.” Indeed, of Svitolina’s six opponents en route to her Junior Slam win, only two later broke into the WTA’s Top 150.Gilbert said that ideally the winners of the Junior Slams should be granted a wild card into the main draw of that Grand Slam the next year.“This would give young players the incentive to play in the Junior Slams and bring more talent back,” he said. More

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      2021 French Open: What to Watch on Tuesday

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      Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Ashleigh Barty start their French Open campaigns on the final day of first-round matches.How to watch: 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern time on the Tennis Channel; streaming on the Tennis Channel+ app.As the first-round matches stretch into a third day of play at Stade Roland Garros, there are two women who can claim defense of the French Open title. Iga Swiatek, the 2020 champion, won her first-round match on Monday. On Tuesday, we turn our attention to Ashleigh Barty, the 2019 champion, who did not play at the French Open or United States Open last year, citing pandemic health concerns. Today, Barty will return to Court Phillipe-Chatrier to face Bernarda Pera, ranked No. 70.Here are some matches to keep an eye on.Because of the number of matches cycling through courts, the times for individual matchups are estimates and may fluctuate based on when earlier play is completed. All times are Eastern.Court PHILIPPE-CHATRIER | 3 p.m. TuesdayNovak Djokovic vs. Tennys SandgrenTennys Sandgren made a joke on Twitter after the French Open draw was revealed that was a self-aware assessment of his slim chances, given he has only won one of his six clay court matches this year.Novak Djokovic, the world No. 1, has also assessed his chances of winning the French Open in clear terms. He sees only one player as his main challenge: Rafael Nadal. He lost to Nadal in three sets in the final of the Italian Open, so if they were to meet in the semifinals in Paris, the five-set format could favor Djokovic’s fitness. While there are plenty of opponents to mind before then, it’s unlikely that Sandgren will last long in the bullring with Djokovic, the Australian Open and Wimbledon defending champion.Court PHILIPPE-CHATRIER | 10 a.m. TuesdayRafael Nadal vs. Alexei PopyrinAlexei Popyrin, ranked No. 63, secured his first ATP title in February at the Singapore Open. The lanky 21-year-old’s game is more suited to hard courts, but Popyrin reached the third round at the Madrid Open on clay. Unfortunately, he then ran into Rafael Nadal, who summarily knocked him out.Nadal has won the French Open 13 times, and is the four-time defending champion at Roland Garros. The undisputed “King of Clay” won the Barcelona Open and Italian Open this year, defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas and Novak Djokovic in the finals. Although Nadal has not looked as usually dominant in the clay court tournaments, he demonstrated that he can still make up for shortcomings with tenacity. It is an almost foregone conclusion that he will advance to the next round on his way to a deep run.COURT SUZANNE-LENGLEN| 1 p.m. TuesdayKarolina Pliskova vs. Donna VekicKarolina Pliskova, the ninth seed, has struggled with her form over the past few years. Although she is an exceptional ball striker, her movement on court has declined. Pliskova added the renowned coach Sascha Bajin to her team in 2020, but so far, any improvement has been met with a counterbalance. At the Italian Open, she reached the final only to be swept by Iga Swiatek.Donna Vekic, ranked No. 36, did not played any clay tournaments in preparation for Roland Garros as she recovered from knee surgery after the Australian Open in February. Vekic reached the round of 16 in Melbourne, and has the ability to make a similar run in Paris, but without match fitness, it will be difficult to chase after Pliskova’s flat, powerful shots.Venus Williams has won seven Grand Slam tournaments but struggles on red clay.Juanjo Martin/EPA, via ShutterstockCourt 14 | 10 a.m. TuesdayVenus Williams vs. Ekaterina AlexandrovaEkaterina Alexandrova, the 32nd seed, won her first WTA title in 2020, but has yet to break through to the second week of a Grand Slam event. Alexandrova has reached the third round of the French Open for the past two years, and if all goes as expected she will meet the fifth seed, Elina Svitolina, there once again this year.Venus Williams, a seven-time Grand Slam champion, has always struggled the most on red clay. Williams captured her first major title on grass at Wimbledon in 2000, before the defending champion of the French Open, Iga Swiatek, was born. This year, Williams has only won one match, but continues fighting for victories that seem only slightly out of reach.Here are a few more matches to keep an eye on.Ons Jabeur vs. Yulia Putintseva; Court 8, 5 a.m. TuesdayAshleigh Barty vs. Bernarda Pera; Court Phillipe-Chatrier, 8 a.m. TuesdayFelix Auger-Aliassime vs. Andrea Seppi; Court 13, 8 a.m. TuesdaySloane Stephens vs. Carla Suárez Navarro; Court Simonne-Mathieu, 1 p.m. Tuesday More