Montreal Masters hands two Canadian talents wildcards - UBITENNIS

Montreal Masters hands two Canadian talents wildcards

By Alex Burton
3 Min Read
Shapovalov has made big strides towards the Top 100 this season (Zimbio.com)

Former Wimbledon junior champion Denis Shapovalov and 16 year-old Felix Auger-Aliassime have both been handed main draw wildcards for this year’s Canadian Masters in Montreal.

The move was expected as both have taken big steps this year in transitioning from the ITF Juniors to the senior circuit.

Both have won their first Challenger titles this year, and Shapovalov has been given a Wimbledon wildcard. He also qualified for the main draw of Queens, defeating Britain’s Kyle Edmund in the first round before taking former Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych a close three sets in the second.

Shapovalov also scored a big win at the Canadian Masters last year when he defeated mercurial Australian Nick Kyrgios. Shapovalov has recovered well from a freak incident during the first round Davis Cup tie with Great Britain earlier this year. He hit a ball that hit the umpire in the eye, breaking his eye socket, and was immediately defaulted.

Auger-Aliassime: “There will obviously be a lot of focus on the next generation, Denis [Shapovalov] and myself. Afterwards, I think it will be important to have a good preparation, to get there in shape, to arrive ready for the start of the week.

Then it will be important to play every match and to take pleasure in playing in Montreal, at home, in a place that I know well, to have a blast, and to have fun playing.’ ‘[Playing at home] is a moment I’ve been thinking about for a while.

Of course, coming here when I was little and seeing the greatest tennis players in the world playing here in Montreal, at the Rogers Cup, and now playing in the same draw, it’s something that I hadn’t imagined would happen so soon for me.

I thought that maybe I’d play this tournament later in my career, but I did a lot of things prematurely. In the last weeks, in the last months, I felt that it was a reachable thing.”

Auger-Aliassime joined the list of the Top 10 youngest players to win a Challenger title, and appears on the list earlier even than Novak Djokovic. Aliassime defeated Mathias Bourgue in the final after a run that also included an excellent win over clay specialist Casper Ruud in the quarter-finals in the Lyon tournament.

 

Leave a comment