Amazing season debut for Canadian tennis

2018 was a little disappointing for Canadian tennis, except the semifinals of Denis Shapovalov in Madrid and Milos Raonic in Indian Wells, California, both ATP Masters 1000 tournaments, as well as Genie Bouchard at the end of the season in Luxembourg. Raonic also reached the final of a minor tournament in Stuttgart, Germany, in June.

However, the 2019 season has only been started for eight weeks and Canadian players are starting a thunderous campaign! The players have also been quick to spread their wings by launching the season with fireworks from first week.

The first women's season tournaments kicked off in the last hours of the past year in Shenzhen, China, Brisbane, Australia, and Auckland, New Zealand. No Canadians was in singles draws in China and Australia, but it was different in New Zealand.

Let's start with Genie Bouchard. The Montrealer, who will be celebrating her 25th birthday on Monday, won her first two main draw matches in singles before losing in quarter-finals after a hard-fought encounter with Germany's Julia Goerges, who was 14th in WTA rankings. However, along with American Sofia Kenin, Bouchard won her first career doubles WTA title by defeating New Zealander Paige Mary Hourigan and American Taylor Townsend in three sets in the final match.

Also present at the same tournament, Ontarian Bianca Andreescu had a dream week. After getting out of qualifying, the 18-year-old has eliminated four of the world's top 60 players, including two former world No. 1, Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki and America's Venus Williams, before being stopped by Goerges after a great battle in the decisive match.

A week later was the first major tournament of the season, the Australian Open, in Melbourne. Forced to go through the qualifiers again, Andreescu flew over his three games to join Shapovalov, Raonic and Bouchard in the main draw. The four Canadians all won their first-round matches, more or less easily, before Bouchard and Andreescu dropped the flag in the second round, respectively against 23-time Gran Slam champion Serena Williams and the thirteenth favorite, Latvian Anastasija Sevastova. Shapovalov then lost in the third round to world No. 1, Serb Novak Djokovic. Raonic had the best run, knocking out back-to-back local favorite Nick Kyrgios and three-time Gran Slam champion Stan Wawrinka. Then, he dismissed the world No. 4, Alexander Zverev in the fourth round before declining against the French Lucas Pouille in the quarter-finals.

At the same time, Quebec's Françoise Abanda reached the final of the ITF tournament in Daytona Beach, Florida, bowing after a 3 hours 9 minutes battle ahead of Hungary's Anna Bondar.

In the second week of the Australian Open, January 21-27, four Canadians did very well in three different tournaments. First, still at the Australian Open, the 16-year-old Leylah Annie Fernandez reached the girls' singles final, bowing to Denmark's Clara Tauson. She also lost in final against Tauson the week before in Traralgon, Australia.

Toronto's Steven Diez also won his first career Challenger title in Burnie, Australia, allowing him to make a jump of more than 100 spots in ATP rankings.

Finally, at the Newport Beach, California, Challenger, Bianca Andreescu and Brayden Schnur both reached the final. The darling of Canadian tennis defeated Eugenie Bouchard in quarter-finals before clinching the title in three sets ahead of American Jessica Pegula in the final, winning her first career WTA title, while Schnur lost in two tight sets against defending champion, American Taylor Fritz.

January was ending this way. Let's go to February!

During the first two weekends of February, the Canadian Davis Cup and Fed Cup teams played crucial ties on clay and in hostile territory to get a chance to compete with the best nations in the world.

First, Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime were on their own in Bratislava, Slovakia, due to Milos Raonic and Vasek Pospisil's injuries, as well as Daniel Nestor's retirement. The two young men aged 19 and 18 rose to the challenge brilliantly, defeating the Slovaks by three wins to two, thanks to Shapovalov's two singles victories and the decisive victory won by the Quebecer. Canada qualified for Davis Cup Finals, which will be played in Madrid in November, and will be paired with the United States and Italy in Group F.

The following weekend, the Canadian women had to travel to 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, to compete against the home team in a World Group II tie. Andreescu has, once again, been masterful, easily winning her two singles matches. Abanda surprised Arantxa Rus, who was much better ranked, in the second match, and Canada won the tie 4-0. Canada, however, will have a hard time joining World Group I, as they will face the powerful Czechs in April.

Then, the following week, Feb. 11-17, Brayden Schnur caused a huge surprise at the ATP 250 tournament at the Nassau Coliseum, the former permanent home of the New York Islanders in the NHL. After getting out of qualifying, he defeated fellow Canadian Jack Mingjie Lin in the first round, then two world's top 50 players and finally lost to Reilly Opelka in the final. Before this tournament, Schnur had never won a match in the main draw of an ATP 250, ATP 500, Masters 1000 or Grand Slam. He is now knocking on the door of the world's top 100.

Finally, over the past few days, Felix Auger-Aliassime shines at the ATP 500 tournament in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He eliminated four excellent clay players, including the world No. 16, Fabio Fognini, and Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas, to reach the final. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to win his first career title on the ATP Tour, losing in two sets against Serbian Laslo Djere. He should be 60th in next ATP rankings.

Bianca Andreescu and Milos Raonic will return to action this week in Acapulco, Mexico, and Dubai, UAE, respectively, while Felix Auger-Aliassime will face Pablo Cuevas again in the first round in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Peter Polansky will compete in the Indian Wells Challenger.

Photo credit : Ubitennis/Twitter