Canadians fall short in mixed doubles

Disappointing week on court

Quickly and quietly, Canada's Olympic tennis hopes are finished.

The mixed doubles tandem of Felix Auger-aliassime and Gaby Dabrowski suffered a first-round 6-3, 6-4 loss to the Greek team of Stefanos Tsitsipas and Maria Sakkari on Wednesday, the final act in a deeply disappointing overall performance by those wearing the maple leaf.

All told, Canadians won just one of five matches in Tokyo, stalling the momentum that Canada's top players had been making internationally in the past couple of years. Including the pre-olympics injury to Milos Raonic and the last-minute decisions by Bianca Andreescu and Vasek Pospisil to not take part in the Games, Canada failed to make a dent on the courts.

The lone match victory belonged to Leylah Fernandez, who won her first round match in women's singles.

Dabrowski and Augeraliassime both failed to win a match. A single break of serve in each set made all the difference in their loss to Sakkari and Tsitsipas. Tsitsipas, ranked fourth in singles on the ATP Tour, stepped back onto the court almost immediately after being eliminated by France's Ugo Humbert in singles competition earlier Wednesday.

Earlier in the week, Auger-aliassime's singles hopes disappeared when he lost to Australia's Max Purcell in the opening round. Purcell was a last-minute replacement for two-time defending Olympic champion Andy Murray, who pulled out due to an injury.

Auger-aliassime appeared a little stunned by his opening round defeat to Purcell, who was originally only competing in doubles. Frank Dancevic, one of Canada's tennis coaches, told Postmedia that the late change to Purcell from Murray was “a mentally tough adjustment.”

Auger-aliassime didn't go there in search of excuses.

“Maybe this is another lesson in my career and my life,” he told reporters. “I know what I'm worth and I know how good I can play. I think it just proves that even though I've done great things in my career so far, and this year again, there are still a lot of things that I can do better.”

Auger-aliassime's appearance with Dabrowski on Wednesday was also his first mixed doubles match in competition.

Dabrowski and partner Sharon Fichman also dropped their opening round match in women's doubles.

So that's it, that's all from the Ariake Tennis Park in Tokyo. The next time we'll see Canada's top players will be at the National Bank Open(s) from Aug. 7-15, with the men in Toronto and the women in Montreal.