Raonic, Bouchard, Pospisil headline six Canadians playing at Wimbledon
WIMBLEDON, United Kingdom — Canada originally had three direct entrants in the 2017 Wimbledon main-draw singles but that number has doubled over the past two weeks.
Milos Raonic, Eugenie Bouchard and Vasek Pospisil were guaranteed spots in the 128-player fields, but Denis Shapovalov’s impressive showing at the Queen’s Club tournament in London two weeks ago earned him a main-draw wild card, and then Bianca Andreescu and Francoise Abanda won their way through three qualifying rounds that finished Friday.
It will be a first Grand Slam singles for the 18-year-old Shapovalov from Richmond Hill, Ont., who qualified and beat No. 47-ranked Kyle Edmund at Queen’s Club, and for 17-year-old Andreescu from Mississauga, Ont. Abanda, a 20-year-old from Montreal, is in her third.
Excited teenagers Shapovalov and Andreescu both said being in the Wimbledon main event was “surreal.”