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Another month, another milestone for Félix Auger-Aliassime. This time the trailblazing teenager has broken the ATP Tour’s top 30 and surely has his sights set on joining fellow Canadians Milos Raonic and Denis Shapovalov in the top 20. He’s also our Canadian Star of the Month to boot.
April may not have seen the 18-year-old hit the heights of February and March, during which he reached the Rio Open final and the semi-finals of the Miami Open, but losing to third-seed Alexander Zverev in the Monte-Carlo Masters and fourth-seed Kei Nishikori in Barcelona is far from embarrassing.
Happy to get through 😁👊🏽 See you tomorrow @bcnopenbs https://t.co/zhhYal8GS5
— Félix AugerAliassime (@felixtennis) April 24, 2019
What makes Auger-Aliassime’s rise to no. 30 even more impressive is that less than three months ago he wasn’t even in the top 100. In fact, when rankings were announced on February 18, he was 104th. Given the Montrealer`s rise to no. 30 was confirmed on April 29, that’s an improvement of more than a ranking per day.
Coming up next for the teenager is another Masters 1000 event in Madrid. On the back of his success in Brazil earlier this year, there`s no doubting he could make a deep run on La Caja Mágica`s clay surface and we could be talking about yet another month to remember for youngster in May.
Honourable Mentions
While Gabriela Dabrowski didn’t climb up in the rankings in April, she certainly had a successful month on the court. Alongside Jelena Ostapenko, rather than her usual doubles partner Xu Yifan, the Ottawa-native advanced to the semi-finals of the Stuttgart Open in Germany.
A resounding 6-1, 6-2 victory against second-seed pairing Anna-Lena Gronefeld and Demi Schuurs in the round of 16 was followed by a thrilling 2-6, 7-5, 11-9 win over Belinda Bencic and Alicja Rosolska. Only German duo Mona Barthel and Anna-Lena Friedsam could stop the Canadian and Latvian as they were forced to bow out in the last four, losing 4-6, 6-2, 11-9.
Hot on her comeback trail, Sharon Fichman rose 15 places in the WTA’s doubles rankings in April. The 28-year-old had a jam-packed month, including four doubles tournaments as well as taking part in Canada’s Fed Cup tie against the Czech Republic in Prostejov. Alongside Australian Erin Routliffe, the Canadian made it to the quarter-final of the Monterrey Open before the duo were knocked out of the Copa Colsanitas at the round of 16.
Next up, this time playing with Jaimee Fourlis, Fichman made it to the final of the ITF Switzerland 01A, losing 6-1, 3-6, 10-7 to Cristina Bucsa and Marta Kostyuk. Finally, she reached the quarter-final of the ITF Germany 03A, which technically spilled into May, losing 6-4, 7-6(3) to Fourlis and Kathinka von Deichmann. All in all, though, a very solid month.
