Serving up tennis talent

ROME (CP) — It’s typically Canadian that Denis Shapovalov, Felix AugerAliassime and Bianca Andreescu are each children of immigrants.

What’s not typical is that they have simultaneously broken into the world’s elite ranks of tennis players — and will all be worth watching when the French Open begins Sunday.

The 20-year-old Shapovalov burst onto the scene a couple of years ago when he upset Rafael Nadal at the Canadian Open. He is now up to No. 23 in the rankings.

The 18-year-old Auger-Aliassime’s breakthrough came at the start of this year when he reached the final of the clay-court Rio Open.

Then things really started heating up in March when Andreescu, who is also 18, beat five seeded players when she won the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Cali., as a wild card entry; and Shapovalov and Auger-Aliassime — as a qualifier — both reached the semifinals of the Miami Open.

“You look at Canada and it’s like, ‘Hockey, hockey, hockey.’ And don’t get me wrong. I love hockey. I love the Toronto Maple Leafs,” Shapovalov said. “But it’s great to see that now people are like, ‘Oh, you can play tennis as well in Canada.”’

While Canada has not historically been known as a tennis hotbed, it has produced other top players in recent years. Eugenie Bouchard (2014) and Milos Raonic (2016) were the country’s first two Grand Slam finalists, each at Wimbledon. Daniel Nestor completed a career Grand Slam in doubles in 2008 and Vasek Pospisil won a doubles title at Wimbledon in 2014.

“Obviously they’ve inspired us and they’ve paved the way for us,” Shapovalov said. “I feel like every week a Canadian is making noise.”