Bianca Andreescu of Canada returns to Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine during their Fed Cup tennis match in Montreal, Saturday, April 21, 2018. wo Canadians are one win away from joining Denis Shapovalov in the main singles draw at the French Open.Mississauga teen Andreescu advanced to the final round of women's qualifying with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Viktoriya Tomova of Bulgaria on Thursday.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
Republished May 24, 2018 - 11:51 AM
Original Publication Date May 24, 2018 - 8:11 AM
PARIS - Two Canadians are one win away from joining Denis Shapovalov in the main singles draw at the French Open.
Mississauga teen Bianca Andreescu advanced to the final round of women's qualifying with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Viktoriya Tomova of Bulgaria on Thursday.
On the men's side, No. 14 seed Peter Polansky of Thornhill, Ont. defeated Serbia's Pedja Krstin 6-4, 6-2 to move on to the final qualifying round.
Andreescu will face No. 22 seed Richel Hogenkamp of the Netherlands in the third round of qualifying on Friday, while Polansky will meet unseeded Jozef Kovalik of Slovakia.
Shapovalov, a 19-year-old from Richmond Hill, Ont., is the top-ranked Canadian in the main draw at No. 26. He will take on No. 58 John Millman of Australia in the first round. Shapovalov faces a tough path to the quarterfinals, with a potential fourth-round matchup with Rafael Nadal looming large.
Nadal, a master of the clay court, is the top seed in Paris. He easily defeated Shapovalov in their only meeting on clay when he downed the Canadian 6-4, 6-1 in the third round of last week's Italian Open.
Vancouver's Vasek Pospisil, ranked 88th, also earned a direct berth in the main draw and will face No. 60 Marton Fucsovics of Hungary in the opening round.
Former world No. 3 Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., withdrew from the French Open because of an undisclosed injury.
The main draw starts Sunday.
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version incorrectly stated that Denis Shapovalov was the only Canadian to gain direct entry into the French Open main draw.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2018