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Once Djokovic dust clears, Canadians set to contend at Aussie Open – CBC Sports

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This is an excerpt from The Buzzer, which is CBC Sports’ daily email newsletter. Stay up to speed on what’s happening in sports by subscribing here.

It could be a big year for Canadian tennis

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.

You’re up to speed. Talk to you tomorrow.

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Washington Capitals 3-2 win ends Dallas Stars’ winning streak

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Tom Wilson, Dylan Strome and Taylor Raddysh scored to help the Washington Capitals end the Dallas Stars’ season-opening winning streak at four with a 3-2 victory Thursday night.

Wilson’s goal was his third in three games, Strome his second of the season and Raddysh his first since joining the team in free agency last summer. Charlie Lindgren made 22 saves as the Capitals wrapped up this early homestand with back-to-back wins.

The Stars fell from the ranks of the league’s unbeaten teams despite a short-handed goal by Colin Blackwell and one at even strength from Jason Robertson. Rookie Oskar Bäck set up Blackwell for his first NHL point.

Casey DeSmith was screened on two of the three goals he allowed on 26 shots.

LIGHTNING 4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nikita Kucherov scored the winning goal with less than a minute to play just 1:27 after Brandon Hagel had tied it and Tampa Bay rallied to beat Vegas.

Kucherov’s second goal of the game with 55 seconds left was his sixth of the season.

Janis Moser had a goal and two assists for the Lightning, who remain unbeaten. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves.

Brayden McNabb, Pavel Dorofeyev and Ivan Barbashev had goals for Vegas. Adin Hill turned aside 21 shots.

Jack Eichel, with two assists on Thursday, now has 10 points this season in five games and reached reached double-digit points faster than any other player in Vegas history. He is the 10th U.S.-born player to accomplish the feat.

After Barbashev put Vegas up 3-2 early in the second, Hagel pulled Tampa Bay even at 3 with 2:22 remaining in the third.

BLUE JACKETS 6, SABRES 4

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Kirill Marchenko and Mathieu Olivier each had a goal and an assist and Daniil Tarasov made 21 saves to help Columbus to a win over Buffalo.

Yegor Chinakhov, Adam Fantilli, Zachary Aston-Reese and Damon Severson also scored for Columbus, and Zach Werenski added two assists.

Ryan McLeod, Owen Power and JJ Peterka scored for Buffalo, and Jiri Kulich added his first NHL goal. Devon Lev stopped 19 shots for the Sabres (1-5-1), who have lost two straight road games and five of their first six overall.

CANUCKS 3, FLORIDA 2, OT

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — J.T. Miller scored 2:09 into overtime and Vancouver got their first win of the season, beating Florida.

Teddy Blueger and Quinn Hughes had goals for Vancouver, with Kevin Lankinen stopping 26 shots.

Anton Lundell got his fourth goal in the last three games for Florida and Jesper Boqvist also scored for the Panthers, who got 30 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky.

Florida remained without forwards Aleksander Barkov (lower body) and Matthew Tkachuk (illness).

DEVILS 3, SENATORS 1

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Jacob Markstrom stopped 30 shots and lost his shutout bid in the final minutes as New Jersey beat Ottawa.

Erik Haula, Nathan Bastian and Paul Cotter scored for the Devils, who won for the third time in four games and improved to 5-2-0.

The Senators, who were coming off an 8-7 overtime victory against Los Angeles on Monday, struggled to beat Markstrom.

Brady Tkachuk was the only scorer for the Senators, beating Markstrom, with a power-play goal with 65 seconds remaining in the third period.

Anton Forsberg, making his second straight start and hoping to rebound after getting pulled Monday, made 32 saves in the loss.

Haula opened the scoring early in the second period and Bastian added a short-handed goal, giving New Jersey a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes. Cotter scored midway through the third.

RANGERS 5, RED WING 2

DETROIT (AP) — Artemi Panarin had his eighth career hat trick and New York rolled to a victory over Detroit.

Panarin became the first Rangers player to have multiple points in the first four games of a season. He scored twice on the power play. Vincent Trocheck also had a power- play goal and assisted on all of Panarin’s goals.

Jonathan Quick made 29 saves in his season debut. Victor Mancini also scored.

The Rangers have won the last five meetings, including twice this week. New York had a 4-1 home victory over Detroit on Monday night.

Moritz Seider and J.T. Compher scored for Detroit. Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot was pulled in the second period after allowing five goals.

KINGS 4, CANADIENS 1

MONTREAL (AP) — David Rittich made 26 saves a night after being benched in the second period in Toronto, helping road-weary Los Angeles snap a three-game losing streak with a victory over Montreal.

Los Angeles improved to 2-1-2 on a season-opening, seven-game trip necessitated by arena renovations.

Rittich rebounded after allowing four goals on 14 shots in a 6-2 loss to the Maple Leafs. Alex Laferriere, Mikey Anderson, Andreas Englund and Adrian Kempe scored.

Justin Barron scored for Montreal (2-3-0). Sam Montembeault stopped 28 shots. He made a save on Kevin Fiala on a penalty shot.

BLUES 1, ISLANDERS 0, OT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Joel Hofer made 34 saves and assisted on Jake Neighbours’ goal at 2:04 of overtime in St. Louis victory over New York.

Hofer had his second career shutout in his and the team’s second overtime victory of the season.

Philip Broberg carried the puck into the New York zone and made a centering pass to Neighbours for the winner.

Islanders goalie Ilya Sorkin made 29 saves.

Blues defenseman Nick Leddy sat out because of a lower-body injury, the first game he has missed this season. Leddy played in all 82 games last season.

OILERS 4, PREDATORS 2

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Brett Kulak scored twice and Connor McDavid added his first goal of the season to lead Edmonton to a victory over reeling Nashville.

Jeff Skinner also scored and Calvin Pickard made 25 saves for the defending Western Conference champion Oilers, who have won consecutive games after beginning the season with a three-game skid.

Filip Forsberg and Jonathan Marchessault scored and Juuse Saros made 32 saves for Nashville (0-4).

Forsberg’s goal midway through the first period gave Nashville its first lead of the season. That lasted less than six minutes before Kulak tied it.

Kulak sealed it with an empty-netter in the final minute for the defenseman’s first career two-goal game.

BLACKHAWKS 4, SHARKS 2

CHICAGO (AP) — Tyler Bertuzzi and Nick Foligno each scored a power-play goal, and Chicago beat San Jose.

Taylor Hall and Jason Dickinson also scored for Chicago. Connor Bedard and Teuvo Teravainen each had two assists.

Hall, who missed most of last season because of right knee surgery, put the Blackhawks in front 4:20 into the first period. It was Hall’s first goal since Nov. 5 and No. 267 for his career.

Tyler Toffoli and Fabian Zetterlund scored for San Jose, which trailed 3-0 early in the second. William Eklund and Mikael Granlund had two assists each.

The Sharks dropped to 0-2-2 under Ryan Warsofsky, who was promoted to head coach in June.

Petr Mrazek had 20 saves for Chicago, and Vitek Vanecek made 23 stops for San Jose.

KRAKEN 6, FLYERS 4

SEATTLE (AP) — Eeli Tolvanen, Jordan Eberle, and Shane Wright scored three goals in less than three minutes in the second period and Seattle held off a Philadelphia rally in a victory.

Tolvanen’s goal broke a 2-2 tie at the 14:57 mark. Eberle made it a two-goal game with a goal at 17:44. Eight seconds later, Wright scored to give Seattle a three-goal lead.

Jared McCann tied the game at 2-2 with the first of Seattle’s four second-period goals.

Cam York and Jamie Drysdale scored to pull Philadelphia within 5-4 in the third period, but Oliver Bjorkstrand responded with a goal to push Seattle’s lead to two with just over five minutes left in the game.

Scott Laughton scored twice for the Flyers in the first period, while Brandon Montour scored one in for the Kraken.

Chandler Stephenson had an assist in his 500th NHL game. Seattle’s Philipp Grubauer had 21 saves.

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Canada’s Dabrowski, New Zealand’s Routliffe out of Japan Women’s Open after walkover

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OSAKA, Japan – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe are out of the Japan Women’s Open tennis tournament.

Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and Romania’s Monica Niculescu advanced to the final on Thursday by way of walkover.

The fourth seeds were supposed to play the top-seeded Dabrowski and Routliffe in the semifinals.

Bucsa and Niculescu will next face third-seeded Ena Shibahara of Japan and Laura Siegemund of Germany in the final.

Dabrowski and Routliffe defeated Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Eri Hozumi in the quarterfinals 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday to advance.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Mountain West commissioner says she’s heartbroken over turmoil surrounding San Jose State volleyball

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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Mountain West Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said Thursday the forfeitures that volleyball teams are willing to take to avoid playing San Jose State is “not what we celebrate in college athletics” and that she is heartbroken over what has transpired this season surrounding the Spartans and their opponents.

Four teams have canceled games against San Jose State: Boise State, Southern Utah, Utah State and Wyoming, with none of the schools explicitly saying why they were forfeiting.

A group of Nevada players issued a statement saying they will not take the floor when the Wolf Pack are scheduled to host the Spartans on Oct. 26. They cited their “right to safety and fair competition,” though their school reaffirmed Thursday that the match is still planned and that state law bars forfeiture “for reasons related to gender identity or expression.”

All those schools, except Southern Utah, are in the Mountain West. New Mexico, also in the MWC, went ahead with its home match on Thursday night, which was won by the Spartans, 3-1, the team’s first victory since Sept. 24.

“It breaks my heart because they’re human beings, young people, student-athletes on both sides of this issue that are getting a lot of national negative attention,” Nevarez said in an interview with The Associated Press at Mountain West basketball media days. “It just doesn’t feel right to me.”

Republican governors of Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming have made public statements in support of the cancellations, citing a need for fairness in women’s sports. Former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee in this year’s presidential race, this week referenced an unidentified volleyball match when he was asked during a Fox News town hall about transgender athletes in women’s sports.

“I saw the slam, it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” Trump replied before he was asked what can be done. “You just ban it. The president bans it. You just don’t let it happen.”

After Trump’s comment, San Diego State issued a statement that said “it has been incorrectly reported that an San Diego State University student-athlete was hit in the face with a volleyball during match play with San Jose State University. The ball bounced off the shoulder of the student-athlete, and the athlete was uninjured and did not miss a play.”

San Jose State has not made any direct comments about the politicians’ “fairness” references, and Nevarez did not go into details.

“I’m learning a lot about the issue,” Nevarez said. “I don’t know a lot of the language yet or the science or the understanding nationally of how this issue plays out. The external influences are so far on either side. We have an election year. It’s political, so, yeah, it feels like a no-win based on all the external pressure.”

The cancellations could mean some teams will not qualify for the conference tournament Nov. 27-30 in Las Vegas, where the top six schools are slated to compete for the league championship.

“The student-athlete (in question) meets the eligibility standard, so if a team does not play them, it’s a forfeit, meaning they take a loss,” Nevarez said.

Ahead of the Oct. 26 match in Reno. Nevada released a statement acknowledging that “a majority of the Wolf Pack women’s volleyball team” had decided to forfeit against San Jose State. The school said only the university can take that step but any player who decides not to play would face no punishment.

___

AP college sports:

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