Milos Raonic reached quarter-finals in Melbourne in a rough Grand Slam for Canada's Next Gen

The first Grand Slam tournament of the season is coming to an end and Canada's performances at this Australian Open have certainly left many fans on their appetite.

This began in the qualifying tournament when Peter Polansky lost in just 54 minutes to Frenchman Alexandre Muller. Then, in the second round, Brayden Schnur and Steven Diez, both seeded, lost in straight sets, 6-7(3), 3-6 and 4-6, 5-7, respectively to Belgium's Kimmer Coppejans (158th) and Japan's Hiroki Moriya (212nd).

After had all the difficulties to dispose of China's Xiaodi You in the first round in excruciating weather conditions, Eugenie Bouchard easily pointed the way out to Australia's Maddison Inglis (130th) in two sets of 6-3 and 6-1. However, she offered a disappointing performance in the final round, losing 4-6, 3-6 to 154th-ranked Martina Trevisan of Italy. The situation didn't improve for the Montrealer as she bowed out quickly to the American Alexa Glatch, 299th, by a score of 1-6, 2-6 in the first round in Newport Beach, California, on Monday.

Fortunately for Canadian fans, 17-year-old Leylah Annie Fernandez qualified for the main draw with consecutive straight-set wins over Patricia Maria Tig (108th), Mayo Hibi (172nd) and Danielle Lao (200th). She also had a favorable draw in the 128-player main draw while inheriting American Lauren Davis, 62nd in the WTA rankings. After an encouraging start, the protagonists were tied 4-all in the opening set, the 26-year-old right-hander won eight of the next 10 games to cruise toward a 6-4, 6-2 victory.

Bianca Andreescu withdrew, fast outings for Shapovalov, Auger-Aliassime and Pospisil

While many were eagerly awaiting Bianca Andreescu's return to the game after an exceptional 2019 season, the young Canadian sensation has still not played a single match in the new decade after she withdrew from the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand, and forfeited for the Australian Open on January 11, five days before the main draw ceremony. However, she is expected to make her return in a few days as she's part of Canada's roster for the Fed Cup tie in Switzerland on February 7-8.

However, the road was very short for three of the four Canadians competing in the men's main draw. Let's start with Denis Shapovalov. Victorious in Stockholm and runner-up in Paris-Bercy in the final weeks of last season, he started his season strong at the ATP Cup with wins over Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas, before delivering a grueling fight to Novak Djokovic in quarter-finals. After an early loss to Ugo Humbert in Auckland, following a victory against his fellow countryman Vasek Pospisil, Shapovalov had to face the Hungarian Marton Fucsovics in the opening round.

It would seem that at the time of the match, Shapo was affected by a virus, but this alone can't explain his excruciating performance. 48 hours before he took the stage, the young left-hander was highly critical towards the ITF and the tournament organizers, lamenting their mismanagement of the environmental tragedy that is hitting Australia.

These comments probably had an impact on his concentration, despite the fact that this duel was played on Margaret Court Arena, which has a retractable roof, and Shapovalov was not a shadow of himself during this match, committing 62 unforced errors in 3 hours and 13 minutes, losing 3-6, 7-6(7), 1-6 and 6-7(3).

Unlike Shapovalov, Felix Auger-Aliassime struggled at the ATP Cup, losing in straight sets to John Millman, Jan-Lennard Struff and Dusan Lajovic. However, he bounced back the following week in Adelaide with convincing victories over Australians James Duckworth and Alex Bolt, before playing an outstanding match, despite the defeat, against Russia's Andrey Rublev in a 2-hour and 59-minute duel. Rublev would eventually win the tournament the next day.

In the first round in Melbourne, Auger-Aliassime faced a qualifier, Ernests Gulbis of Latvia. A former top-10, Gulbis wasn't an easy challenge for the 19-year-old right-hander. Like Shapovalov, FAA struggled against his opening opponent, offering 15 break points to the 31-year-old veteran while winning only 46% of his second-serve points. Auger-Aliassime had the opportunity to serve for the first set at *5-4, but he missed his moment, losing the last three games of the set to drop it 5-7.

Despite being able to bounce back to take the second set 6-4, the young Canadian had a difficult third-set tiebreak, quickly pulling back *1-5. The third set went to Gulbis moments later by the score of 7-6(4) and Felix was unable to turn the tide, losing 4-6 in the fourth set after a 3-hour and 35-minute duel.

On his side, Vasek Pospisil also benefited from a favorable draw as he shared the court with the 40-year-old veteran, Croatian Ivo Karlovic. Following victories over Karen Khachanov, Fabio Fognini, Diego Schwartzman and Reilly Opelka, to only name them, in the final months of last season, hopes were high for him to have a good run in Melbourne. If we take a look at the statistics, since I wasn't able to watch the match, Pospisil played really well, making 49 winners against only 18 unforced errors. He even made one more ace than his opponent, yet known for reaping aces in abundance. Despite this, he won 15 points less than Karlovic and lost 6-7(4), 4-6 and 5-7.

Also competing in men's doubles with partner Hubert Hurkacz of Poland, Pospisil lost to Britain's Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski in identical and straight sets of 6-4. 2014 Wimbledon men's doubles champion, the B.C. native has reached the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam only twice in doubles since that title with Jack Sock.

Unexpected run for Milos Raonic

Since Milos Raonic reached world No. 3 in November 2016, he has been slowed by repeated injuries that have soured his career. This situation caused him more troubles at the end of last season when he played only five games after he withdrew following the second set during his second-round match against Felix Auger-Aliassime at the Rogers Cup in Montreal. The way he began this new year was hardly more encouraging as he lost in his only match before the Australian Open to France's Corentin Moutet in Doha, Qatar.

However, he enjoyed a bit of luck as he inherited the status of 32nd seed following the withdrawal of Australian Alex de Minaur, while he came to Melbourne as the 35th player in the world with a quarter-final appearance to defend. Another good news awaited Raonic as, just hours before his first-round match, his opponent, Moldova's Radu Albot, withdrew from the tournament. This withdrawal allowed the Italian Lorenzo Giustino, a lucky loser, to face the Canadian in the opening round. Raonic was merciless for the world No. 150 in a two-day match due to a rain delay when Raonic was only one game away from victory. Finally, the match lasted only one hour and 27 minutes and Raonic won 6-2, 6-1 and 6-3, hitting 40 winners, including only 9 aces, and converting 6 of his 14 break points.

In the second round, we were entitled to expect a much tighter match as Raonic faced the player directly behind him in the ATP rankings, Chile's Cristian Garin. However, this wasn't the case as the Canadian needed only ten more minutes to advance to the third round, pointing the way out to his opponent by the score of 6-3, 6-4 and 6-2. Raonic was, once again, imperial with his first serve, collecting 19 aces and winning 36 of 39 points with his main weapon. He had only four chances to break Garin's serve and, although he often lacks opportunism in such situations, he made the break on every occasion. He was also excellent when moving forward, winning 20 of 25 net points.

A challenge awaited the Ontarian for his third match when none other than the newest ATP Finals' champion and world No. 6, the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, was his opponent. Ironically, while Tsitsipas is one of the best players in the world, he's struggling against Canadian players, as evidenced by the following statistic taken before the duel between the two men.

Unfortunately for the Greek, the trend continued as Raonic played a flawless match, hitting 19 aces and 55 winners against only one double fault and 32 unforced errors. Despite Tsitsipas' status, Milos did not concede a single break point and won 7-5, 6-4 and 7-6(2) after an impeccable third-set tiebreak, in which Raonic did two aces and three rally winners.

In the last 16, Raonic had to meet Croatia's Marin Cilic, now 39th despite he was 16th at the Rogers Cup last August. It is safe to say that Raonic was in great shape for this duel. After a difficult start to the match, mainly on his serve, until 4-all in the opening set, the Canadian won the next five games to take the first set 6-4 and lead 3-0* in the second one. At the changeover, Cilic, who had needed five sets in his previous two matches against Benoit Paire and Roberto Bautista Agut, requested a medical timeout to receive treatments.

Subsequently, Raonic was able to maintain his one-break lead to win the second set 6-3 and take a two-set-to-love lead. In the third set, Milos was unable to convert a 0-40 lead at 1-all, then another break point at 4-all. In the subsequent game, Raonic found himself in a hazardous position, giving Cilic a 15-40 lead, and thus two set points, but he quickly brushed off those opportunities with three consecutive aces to level up at 5-all. Moments later, the Canadian took advantage of Cilic's three unforced errors to break his serve and quickly closed out the match with his 35th ace of the day to win 6-4, 6-3 and 7-5.

Incredibly, Milos Raonic didn't see his serve broken after four matches, canceling out the seven break points he conceded to his opponents, despite facing three players among the top-40. Also, while Raonic is recognized as a player who wins his matches mainly with his powerful serve, he had won his first four matches in straight sets, including only one at the tiebreak, while collecting 82 aces in the process.

However, in the quarter-finals, a monstrous challenge was awaiting the Canadian as the seven-time Australian Open champion, the Serb Novak Djokovic, faced him. Unfortunately for Raonic, he played his worst match in Melbourne, regardless of his opponent's game. His first set was particularly difficult and set the tone for the match, as Raonic made four double faults, won just 68% of his first-serve points and gave the former No. 1 nine break points.

After a first set lost 4-6, Raonic played better in the following one, making 14 winners against 13 unforced errors, while committing no double fault. However, he gave Djokovic three break points at 1-all and the Serb capitalized on the last opportunity to take the second set 6-3. In the third set, Raonic managed to clear four break points at 5-all to force a tiebreak, which Djokovic flew over by the score of 7-1.

Despite the match being 30 minutes longer than the one against Cilic, Raonic finished it with only 18 aces, half of what he did 48 hours earlier. Prior to the Australian, Tennis Canada had committed $100 to rebuild Australia's wildlife for every ace hit by a Canadian player in Melbourne. The 100 aces made by Milos Raonic raised $10,000 for the good cause.

Despite matching his 2019 performance, this run to the quarter-finals will allow him to climb three positions to 32nd when the rankings will be unveiled on Monday.

Dabrowski is still looking for a first women's doubles title

Gabriela Dabrowski is recognized as one of the best doubles players in the world for several years, but it was still missing a feat in her great career. Despite she won two mixed doubles titles, at Roland Garros in 2017 and in Melbourne in 2018, Dabrowski was still looking for her first Grand Slam title in the ladies' tournament.

Now separated from China's Yifan Xu, her partner of previous years, the Ottawa native was playing the first Grand Slam tournament of the season with Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko. After wins over Maria Sakkari and Alja Tomljanovic, Asia Muhammad and Sabrina Santamaria, as well as Hayley Carter and Luisa Stefani in the first three rounds, Dabrowski and Ostapenko, who were the sixth seeds, saw their run ends in the quarter-finals ahead of the fourth favorites, Czechs Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova, by the score of 6-3, 2-6 and 3-6.

Also in the mixed doubles, along with Finland's Henri Kontinen, the third favorites managed to eliminate the experienced Latisha Chan and Ivan Dodig in the quarter-finals before being stopped in the semi-finals by Krejcikova and Croatian Nikola Mektic 6-3, 3-6 and [5-10].

Also in action in women's doubles, Sharon Fichman and her partner, Sweden's Cornelia Lister, dropped a 5-1* lead in the opening set to bow out 6-7(4), 2-6 to Australia's Jaimee Fourlis and Arina Rodionova.

Melodie Collard and Jada Bui were in action at the juniors

On the junior's side, no young Canadian male played the Australian Open, but Melodie Collard and Jada Bui were in action on the girls' side. While Collard, the 10th favorite, saw her tournament ends in the second round ahead of France's Aubane Droguet, Bui lost to Germany's Alexandra Vecic in the opening round. Reunited in doubles, Collard and Bui were stopped in their first match by China's Zhuoxuan Bai and Taiwan's Ya Yi Yang.

In short, the first major tournament of the season was a roller coaster for the Canadian representatives, but Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime have several months ahead of them to rectify these disappointing performances.

Featured photo: Zimbio