Photo: Peter Staples/ATP Tour
The official draw for the 2020 US Open has been made in the last few hours. Five Canadian players will be competing in the main draw, as Denis Shapovalov (Richmond Hill, ON), Félix Auger-Aliassime (Montreal, QC), Milos Raonic (Thornhill, ON), Vasek Pospisil (Vernon, BC) and Leylah Annie Fernandez (Laval, QC) are all set to compete in singles.
Shapovalov is the highest ranked Canadian with his ranking of no. 17 and will be the 12th seed at the tournament. In the opening round, he will face Wild Card recipient Sebastian Korda of the United States, currently ranked no. 225 in the world. It will be the first meeting between the two young players. Shapovalov, whose best performance at the US Open came in 2017 when he reached the fourth round, is in the same section of the draw as the top seed Novak Djokovic and could face the World No. 1 in the quarter-finals.
The 15th seed at the US Open will be Auger-Aliassime. The Montreal native is in the bottom quarter of the draw, alongside compatriots Raonic and Pospisil. In his first round match, he will take on Thiago Monteiro of Brazil, ranked no. 82 in the world. There are a two potential all-Canadian match-ups in the quarter-finals, as Auger-Aliassime could take on either Raonic or Pospisil later in the tournament. The top seed in this portion of the draw is world no. 3 Dominic Thiem of Austria.
For his part, Raonic is slated to be the 25th seed in the tournament with his first round match coming against Leonardo Mayer of Argentina. The 29-year-old Canadian could face compatriot Vasek Pospisil as of the second round. Other potential match-ups in his quarter of the draw include Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain in the third round and the no. 11 seed Karen Khachanov of Russia in the fourth round. Raonic is the lone Canadian still in action at the Western & Southern Open, where he is set to play his semi-final match on Friday.
Rounding out the Canadian contingent in the men’s draw is Pospisil, who will take on Philip Kohlschreiber of Germany in the first round. After coming back from an injury that kept him out of the end of the 2019 season, Pospisil was having a great start to the year, notably reaching the final at the ATP 250 event in Marseilles back in February.
On the women’s side, Fernandez is the only Canadian in singles action. She will be competing in her second Grand Slam main draw, having won all her qualifying matches at the Australian Open earlier this year. She will be taking on Vera Zvonareva of Russia in the opening round with a possible match-up against the second seed Sofia Kenin of the United States in the second round. Despite the pause in the tennis season, Fernandez is having a standout year, notably notching three wins over Top 50 players and reaching the final at the WTA International event in Acapulco.
The doubles draws are set to be released on August 31.
