Denis Shapovalov of Toronto, Ontario and Bianca Andreescu of Mississauga, Ontario knocked out seeded players in the second round of the French Open on Thursday. Shapovalov beat the 25th seed, Frances Tiafoe of the United States, 6-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4. Andreescu beat the 23rd seed, Anna Kalinskaya of Russia, 1-6, 7-5, 6-3.
Shapovalov won because of his serve. He had 21 aces while Tiafoe only had one. Andreescu, meanwhile, completely overpowered Kalinskaya after the first set. One interesting note was the fact that Kalinskaya had been up late the night before watching her boyfriend’s match. She is dating world number two and 2024 Australian Open champion, Jannik Sinner of Italy.
Two more Canadians won on Thursday. They were Leylah Annie Fernandez of Montreal, Quebec, the 31st seed, who beat Xiyu Wang of China, 6-3, 6-4. Meanwhile, Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal, the 21st seed, beat Henri Squire of Germany, 6-4, 4-6. 6-3, 6-2. The serve was a major reason why Fernandez and Auger-Aliassime won. Fernandez had only two double faults, while Wang had eight. Auger-Aliassime had 12 aces, while Squire had five aces.
Next up for Shapovalov is the eighth seed, Hubert Hurkacz of Poland in round three on Friday. Ironically Shapovalov and Hurkacz both reached the Wimbledon semifinal in 2021 as their best grand slam result. Shapovalov has beaten Hurkacz once in five meetings. That came in the third round of Dubai in 2021, where Shapovalov won 6-4, 6-3.
Fernandez, the finalist of the United States Open in 2021, is facing a three-time grand slam finalist, Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, the eighth seed on Friday. Jabeur made the final of Wimbledon in 2022 and 2023, and the United States Open in 2022. Jabeur has won all three prior meetings, including a third round win in Madrid on April 27 of this year. In their only meeting on clay, Jabeur won 7-5, 2-6, 6-4.
Auger-Aliassime, the semifinalist of the United States Open in 2021, is facing 2023 United States Open semifinalist Ben Shelton of the United States, the 15th seed on Friday. This is their first ever meeting.
Finally, Andreescu, the 2019 United States Open champion, is facing the 12th seed Jasmine Paolini of Italy. This is also their first ever meeting.
