Rogers Cup holding spot open for Serena
Four Canadians vie for wild-card entry
Tournament director Eugène Lapierre proudly announced that the top 25 female players in the world rankings have entered this year’s Rogers Cup Canadian Open from Aug. 3-12 at the Jarry Tennis Centre.
And, he noted, the four top players on the list are the winners of the last four Grand Slam events.
Top-ranked Simona Halep won last month’s French Open. No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki won the Australian Open. No. 3 Garbine Muguruza is the defending Wimbledon champ and No. 4 Sloane Stephens won the 2017 U.S. Open.
But the big question on Thursday was: Who will fill the wild-card spots? There’s one WTA wild-card for a player who was once ranked in the top-20, but has dropped for one reason or another, and there are three spots traditionally reserved for Canadian players.
Lapierre is hoping the player ranked No. 283 wants that WTA spot.
That player is former No. 1 Serena Williams, who is playing again after taking time off to have a baby. Her comeback hit a snag at the French Open, when she had to default a match because of an arm injury, but she’s back on the court and getting ready for Wimbledon.
“I’m talking to her agent all the time, but I think this will be a lastminute decision,” said Lapierre. “She knows that we have one of the best tournaments in the world here in Montreal, but she’s like Roger Federer. She’s not going to play five weeks in a row. She’s going to pick the events that give her the best preparation going into the U.S. Open.”
As for those Canadian wild-card spots, Lapierre has given Fed Cup captain Sylvain Bruneau and Louis Borfiga, the Tennis Canada vicepresident responsible for development, the task of handing out those spots in the main draw.
There are four players in line for the three spots. Carol Zhao, No. 131, is the top-ranked Canadian in the WTA Tour rankings, followed by Montrealer Françoise Abanda (No. 152); Bianca Andreescu (No. 184) and Eugenie Bouchard (No. 191).
Those rankings will be revised after Wimbledon. Bouchard became the only Canadian woman to qualify for the Grand Slam event with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Mariana Duque-Marino of Colombia on Thursday.
There is one other Canadian with designs on a wild-card spot. Rebecca Marino, who is making a comeback at age 27, is No. 428 but hopes to make some noise in the coming month at challenger events in Winnipeg, Gatineau and Granby.