Monday Digest: Auger-Aliassime Making Strides in Madrid

It has been a while since Félix Auger-Aliassime has looked as good as he has in Madrid. 

Week one of the Mutua Madrid Open saw some impressive performances by the Canadians, but the man from Montreal is the only one still going at the 1000-level event. 

Meanwhile, Canadians continue to have success on the ITF wheelchair tour. 

Here’s what you need to know. 

In Case You Missed It: Good Signs in Madrid 

Three Canadians entered the fray at the first mixed Masters 1000 on clay of 2024 and all three got off to winning starts. However, only one made it to the second week. 

Leylah Annie Fernandez was the lone Canadian woman competing in Madrid. She beat Anastasia Potapova in her opening match before losing a heart-breaker in round three to Ons Jabeur. 

Denis Shapovalov scored a pair of impressive victories over strong clay-court players Facundo Diaz Acosta and Tomas Martin Etcheverry before being stone-walled in round three by two-time Madrid champion Alexander Zverev.  

Félix Auger-Aliassime was the only Canadian who made it to Monday, scoring a comeback win in round one over Yoshihito Nishioka before delivering one of his best performances in recent months by dominating world No. 20 Adrian Mannarino with the loss of just four games.  

Then on Monday, he won seven of eight games before Jakub Mensik retired, sending Auger-Aliassime into the last 16 of a 1000-level event (or higher) for the first time since Indian Wells in March 2023.  

What to Watch: Auger-Aliassime Continues to Progress 

With Madrid continuing to dominate the calendar this week, only Auger-Aliassime is competing on the main tours this week. 

He already won his first match of the new week earlier on Monday. Next up is world No. 6 Casper Ruud. A win could see Auger-Aliassime meet top seed Jannik Sinner in the quarter-finals.  

Possible semifinal opponents include the Canadian’s nemesis Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Bublik, and Rafael Nadal. 

Under the Radar: Another win for Venos 

For the second week in a row, Thomas Venos got his hands on some hardware on the ITF Wheelchair Tour. This time it was a doubles trophy as he and Sergei Lysov of Israel claimed the trophy in Plock, Poland. 

Venos and Lysov knocked off the top two seeded teams in the tournament, taking down top seeds Piotr Jaroszewski and Enrique Siscar Meseguer 11-9 in the match tiebreak in the semifinals and then beat second seeds Jakub Dominik Bukala and Kamil Fabisiak 10-6 in the decider to claim the title. 

“It was a very good fight today in the final. In the match we were the ones controlling the point right from the start looking to put our opponents into trouble,” said Venos after the final. “We were able to come up clutch and find our games at the right moments in the tiebreaker to take the match. It was a very fun experience to play with Sergei as he is a phenomenal player, and I am very happy to finish my first European tour with a title” 

It is the eighth ITF doubles title of Venos’ career and second of 2024. Including his singles title last week, the Canadian has lifted three trophies so far this year. 

Three other Canadians won ITF doubles titles last week. On the junior circuit, Manveer Boparai teamed up with American Chase Kelley to win the boys doubles at the J60 event in Tlaxcala, Mexico, while Amy Lu also won a J60 girls doubles event in San Jose with American Filipa Delgado. 

Read also: Dual Challenge for the 2024 National Bank Open

Over on the Masters side, Robert Oleksiuk won the 45+ men’s doubles title at an MT400 event in Barcelona, Spain. 

This week, a trio of Canadian women are competing at the ITF W100 event in Gifu, Champion, led by Rebecca Marino. Gabriel Diallo is also competing in an ATP Challenger event in Cagliari, Italy.  

You can follow the Canadians in action every week here.