TORONTO — Rising star Felix Auger-Aliassime is among five Canadians who earned a wild-card berth into the 2018 Rogers Cup.
Tennis Canada announced on Wednesday the final five wild-card recipients for the tennis tournaments in Toronto and Montreal.
Joining Montreal’s Auger-Aliassime in Toronto for the men’s tournament are 2013 Rogers Cup semifinalist Vasek Pospisil of Vancouver and Peter Polansky of Thornhill, Ont. They will be part of a main draw that includes fellow Canadians Milos Raonic of Thornhill and Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont.
Richmond Hill’s Carol Zhao and Bianca Andreescu of Mississauga, Ont., earned berths into the women’s tournament in Montreal. They join Eugenie Bouchard of Westmount, Que., whose wild card was confirmed earlier this month.
Auger-Aliassime will play in the main draw of Rogers Cup for the very first time after skipping the event last year due to injury.
The world No. 134, who turns 18 next week, earned his first ATP win in March when he defeated Pospisil at Indian Wells before falling to Raonic in the second round.
He recently defended his crown at the Lyon Challenger to pick up his third title on that circuit.
Pospisil, who will play in his eighth Rogers Cup, upset John Isner and Tomas Berdych in 2013 before losing an all-Canadian semifinal against Raonic.
Polansky is coming off a victory at the Granby Challenger last week.
Andreescu advanced to the Granby semifinals last week before suffering a back injury. She withdrew from the tournament in Washington this week to recover for Rogers Cup.
Canadian No. 2 and world No. 138 Zhao will play in the main draw of Rogers Cup for the third time in her career and fight to make it past round one for the first time. Earlier this season, she reached the quarterfinals of the Midland Challenger and joined Canada’s Fed Cup team in its first-round World Group II loss to Romania.
Montreal’s Francoise Abanda, Vancouver’s Rebecca Marino and Toronto’s Katherine Sebov were given wild-card berths in the women’s qualifying tournament.
In Toronto, three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka, who is currently ranked World No. 201 in the wake of two knee surgeries, was given a qualifying wild-card spot along with Vancouver’s Filip Peliwo and Brayden Schnur of Pickering, Ont. A fourth wild card will be handed out later this week.
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