All eyes in the tennis world are on Australia right now — and really, they’re on Novak Djokovic, who won his court battle to enter the country despite visa issues stemming from his vaccination status.
But Djokovic isn’t in the clear yet, with Australia’s immigration minister threatening to use his power to deport the top-ranked player. Meanwhile, the Serb said he had not travelled within 14 days of landing in Australia on his immigration form, yet he was seen both in his home country and in Spain in that time period.
You can read the latest on the Djokovic situation here, and watch CBC Sports’ Bring It In panel break it all down here.
The Australian Open, at which Djokovic hopes to break a tie with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal for the men’s Grand Slam championship record, begins next Monday in Melbourne.
Most competitors have been stationed in Australia for some time now, where tune-up tournaments happened throughout the country and Canada claimed its first-ever ATP Cup title.
But once the Djokovic dust settles, the season-opening major will take centre stage. Here’s where some of the Canadian tennis contingent stands:
Felix Auger-Aliassime
After beating No. 17 Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain in the ATP Cup final, Auger-Aliassime climbed to ninth in ATP rankings — the same spot at which he’s to be seeded for the Australian Open when the draw is revealed on Thursday. Auger-Aliassime, 21, reached his first-ever Grand Slam quarter-final at Wimbledon last year, only to one-up himself with a run to the U.S. Open semis a few months later. That sets up a natural progression for the Montreal native, whose next steps should be to play for a major championship and to claim his first individual ATP singles title. In fact, Auger-Aliassime has never won so much as a single set in the eight tournament finals he’s played since 2019. Perhaps his clutch performance at the ATP Cup was the spark he needed.
Leylah Fernandez
Fernandez’s 2021 would be a good template for Auger-Aliassime to follow after his fellow Montrealer won both her first tournament (the Monterrey Open back in March) and reached her first Grand Slam final at the U.S. Open in September. For Fernandez, the question now is how to produce a sequel, though she’s still just 19 and only two years removed from her Grand Slam debut in Melbourne in 2020. The Canadian, ranked a career-high 24th, lost in the first round of both her previous Australian Open appearances, so a victory or two Down Under could make a good building block for that follow-up campaign.
Denis Shapovalov
The Richmond Hill, Ont., native has been an ATP Tour staple since taking most improved player honours in 2017. In that time, he reached a career-high ranking of 10th (last August) and made three singles finals, winning his lone title at the Stockholm Open in 2019. Now 22 years old, Shapovalov appears to have reached a point in his career where he shows occasional greatness (like making his first major semifinal at Wimbledon last year) before suffering a frustrating loss (like as the top seed in the first round of his very next tournament). He beat No. 21 Pablo Carreno Busta in the ATP Cup final — but to show true growth, he’ll need to win matches like that consistently over the course of the season.
Bianca Andreescu and Milos Raonic
The oft-injured Canadians each withdrew from the Australian Open. In making the announcement more than a month ago, Andreescu said she needed more time to reset physically and mentally following a year in which multiple COVID-19 scares caused her to “not feel like [herself].” She still managed some success despite that, making the Miami Open final in April before retiring mid-match with an ankle injury. Raonic, who’s fallen all the way to 69th, cited a heel injury in backing out of the season-opening major. The 31-year-old will have missed each of the last four Grand Slams.
Gabriela Dabrowski
Other than Fernandez, the doubles player was arguably the most successful Canadian on tour in 2021. Alongside Brazilian partner Luisa Stefani, the Ottawa native made three finals, picking up a championship at the National Bank Open in Montreal. Dabrowski, 29, eventually reached a ranking of fifth — the highest ever for a Canadian women’s doubles player. But she switched partners for the coming season to No. 18 Giuliana Olmos of Mexico. The new pairing’s first big test will come at the Australian Open.
Canada’s Auger-Aliassime, Shapovalov celebrate ATP Cup title victory
3 days ago
Duration 3:56
Denis Shapovalov beat Pablo Carreño Busta 6-4, 6-3 and Felix Auger-Aliassime defeated Roberto Bautista Agut 7-6(3), 6-3 as Canada topped Spain to clinch the country’s first ATP Cup title in Sydney. 3:56
Quickly…
Canada’s Olympic women’s hockey team is set. The roster, highlighted by Olympic stars Marie-Philip Poulin, Brianne Jenner and Sarah Nurse, didn’t feature much surprise, given there were only three cuts from the group that’s currently centralized in a bubble in Calgary. And in further effort to avoid the virus, the team won’t play another competitive game until the start of its Olympic tournament on Feb. 2 against Switzerland — two days before the opening ceremony in Beijing. After taking gold at every Games between 2002 and 2014, Canada stumbled to silver following a shootout loss to the U.S. at the most recent Winter Olympics, meaning the latest edition of the team will be charged with righting the ship. We now know three groups of Canadian athletes headed to China (figure skating and men’s and women’s curling are the others), but with a deadline to nominate athletes to the national Olympic committee next Wednesday, you can expect a flood of announcements in the coming week. Check out the full 23-woman hockey roster here.
And finally…
Ontario university and college athletes are sidelined, but no one seems sure why. Under the province’s latest COVID-19 restrictions, seven “elite amateur” sports leagues were permitted to move forward, yet student-athletes — not granted that “elite” status — were shut out of the field of play. The ruling, meant to protect students from the raging Omicron variant, instead caused confusion among athletes and experts alike, with a government official simply saying that university and college sports would continue “when it is safe to do so.” One “elite” league, the Ontario Scholastic Basketball Association, is a high-school circuit from which players often graduate into the post-secondary level. Meanwhile, university and college athletes are already coming off a 2020-21 campaign in which sports were wiped out due to the pandemic. Now, they find themselves in limbo once again. Read more about the decision and ensuing reaction in senior contributor Shireen Ahmed’s debut column for CBC Sports.
DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit Red Wings signed forward Lucas Raymond to an eight-year, $64.6 million contract Monday, completing a deal with one of their best young players less than 72 hours before training camp begins.
Raymond will count $8.075 million against the salary cap through 2032. The 22-year-old was a restricted free agent without a contract for the upcoming NHL season and was coming off setting career highs with 31 goals, 41 assists and 72 points.
The Red Wings have another one of those in defenceman Moritz Seider, who won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year in 2021-22.
Detroit is looking to end an eight-year playoff drought dating to the Original Six franchise’s last appearance in 2016.
Raymond, a Swede who was the fourth pick in 2020, has 174 points in 238 games since breaking into the league.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Kirk Cousins led a flawless last-minute drive for Atlanta and connected with Drake London for a 7-yard touchdown with 34 seconds left to give the Falcons a 22-21 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night.
Saquon Barkley dropped a short pass that stopped the clock with 1:46 left and forced the Eagles to settle for a field goal instead of a game-sealing first down. That was plenty of time for Cousins — especially against an Eagles defense playing soft coverage with a nonexistent pass rush.
The 36-year-old veteran, playing his second game since tearing his Achilles tendon last Oct. 29 while playing for Minnesota, shook off an uneven effort and hit Darnell Mooney for 21 and 26 yards on consecutive plays during the decisive drive.
Cousins found London on a short pass to his right for the tying score, and Younghoe Koo put Atlanta (1-1) on top with a 48-yard extra point after London was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct. The go-ahead drive took just 65 seconds.
Jalen Hurts had his final pass intercepted by Jessie Bates III to seal Atlanta’s win and set off a wild celebration on the sideline.
The Eagles (1-1) went ahead on Hurts’ 1-yard tush push score with 6:47 left. Barkley finished with 95 yards on 22 carries in his home debut for Philadelphia, but his drop provided the Falcons with some hope.
And then Cousins started playing like the QB Atlanta thought it was getting when it signed him to a four-year, $180 million contract.
Cousins finished 20 of 29 for 241 yards and two touchdowns. Atlanta’s first TD was a 41-yarder from Cousins to Mooney, who finished with three catches for 88 yards.
Hurts was 23 of 30 for 183 yards, including a touchdown pass to DeVonta Smith. With No. 1 receiver A.J. Brown out with a hamstring injury, Smith led the Eagles with seven catches for 76 yards and a score.
Jake Elliott kicked two field goals for the Eagles. His 28-yarder with 1:39 left made it 21-15.
Atlanta kept stalling in the red zone, getting three field goals from Koo, before Cousins fired over the middle to Mooney, who shook loose from C.J. Gardner-Johnson and left him on the turf before he somersaulted into the end zone with 1:21 left in the third quarter for a 15-10 lead. Cousins failed on the 2-point conversion pass.
Hurts had some juice in his step during a second-quarter TD drive, running with abandon for big plays much like he did in the 2022 season. He spiked the ball in a rare, raw show of emotion on a 23-yard run, earning a delay-of-game penalty. He shrugged off the 5-yard setback and scrambled for 9 yards and 15 yards to move the Eagles to Atlanta’s 19.
With comedian Shane Gillis and actor Bradley Cooper among the fans cheering on the Eagles, Hurts connected with Smith in the back of the end zone for a 7-yard TD that made it 7-3.
Under new defensive coordinator Vince Fangio, the Eagles have established an early knack for allowing long drives that end with three points instead of seven. Koo kicked field goals of 39, 22 and 34 yards, the last one enough for a 9-7 lead in the third quarter. In their opener, the Eagles held the Packers to just three field goals when they drove inside the 20.
Questionable call
Rather than take a chip-shot field goal from Elliott, the Eagles’ fourth-and-4 gamble at Atlanta’s 9-yard line in the first quarter failed when Hurts threw an incomplete pass.
Elliott kicked a 29-yarder with 4:31 left in the third quarter for a 10-9 lead.
Running wild
Bijan Robinson ran for 97 yards for the Falcons. The Eagles stuffed him late on fourth-and-1 at the Atlanta 39.
Barkley was quiet until the go-ahead drive, a week after he rushed for 109 yards and scored three touchdowns against Green Bay. Eagles fans booed when the opening drive of the game ended without Barkley touching the ball. They went wild when he had consecutive 9-yard runs to open the second drive. Barkley had 40 yards rushing in the first half.
Foles honored
Former Eagles QB Nick Foles, who led the franchise to its only Super Bowl title, served as an honorary captain and led the crowd in a rendition of “Fly, Eagles, Fly.”
Injuries
The Falcons played without LB Nate Landman (calf, quad).
Up next
Atlanta hosts Super Bowl champion Kansas City on Sunday.
TORONTO – Singles star Leylah Fernandez and doubles specialist Gabriela Dabrowski will anchor Canada’s five-player lineup when the team tries to defend its Billie Jean King Cup title in mid-November.
The 26th-ranked Fernandez, the 2021 U.S. Open finalist from Laval, Que., is the lone Canadian in the top 100 of the WTA Tour’s singles rankings.
Dabrowski, from Ottawa, is ranked fourth on the doubles list. The 2023 U.S. Open women’s doubles champion won mixed doubles bronze with Felix Auger-Aliassime at the recent Paris Olympics.
Marina Stakusic of Mississauga, Ont., returns after a breakout performance last year, capped by her singles win in Canada’s 2-0 victory over Italy in the final. Vancouver’s Rebecca Marino is also back and Bianca Andreescu, the 2019 U.S. Open champion from Mississauga, Ont., returns to the squad for the first time since 2022.
“Winning the Billie Jean King Cup in 2023 was a dream come true for us, and not only that, but I feel like we made a statement to the world about the strength of this nation when it comes to tennis,” Canada captain Heidi El Tabakh said Monday in a release. “Once again, we have a very strong team this year with Bianca joining Leylah, Gaby, Rebecca and Marina, making it an extremely powerful team that is more than capable of going all the way.
“At the end of the day, our goal is to make Canada proud, and we’ll do our best to bring the same level of effort and excitement that we had in last year’s finals.”
Fernandez, who beat Jasmine Paolini to clinch Canada’s first-ever title at the competition, is ranked No. 42 in doubles.
Canada, which received an automatic berth as defending champion, will play the winner of the first-round tie between Great Britain and Germany on Nov. 17 at Malaga’s Martin Carpena Arena.
Australia, Italy and wild-card entry Czechia also received first-round byes. The tournament, which continues through Nov. 20, also includes host Spain, Slovakia, the United States, Poland, Japan and Romania.
Stakusic is up 27 spots to No. 128 in the latest world singles rankings. Marino is at No. 134 and Andreescu, the 2019 U.S. Open champion, is ranked 167th.
Canada will look to become the first team since Czechia in 2016 to successfully defend its Billie Jean King Cup title.
Malaga will also host the Nov. 19-24 Davis Cup Final 8. The Canadian men qualified over the weekend with a 2-1 victory over Great Britain in Manchester.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
