Abanda qualifies for second career Grand Slam main draw
Montreal, May 26, 2017 – The singles draws are set for the 2017 edition of Roland-Garros and it will feature three Canadians, Françoise Abanda (Montreal, QC), Eugenie Bouchard (Montreal, QC) and Milos Raonic (Thornhill, ON).
In the opening round, Raonic, seeded fifth in the tournament thanks to his world no. 6 ranking and the absence of Roger Federer, will face world no. 38 Steve Darcis of Belgium. The Canadian’s path in Paris could potentially include a Round of 16 encounter with Grigor Dimitrov and a quarter-final battle against Rafael Nadal. Raonic is in the bottom of the draw in the same half as defending champion Novak Djokovic. Last year, Raonic fell in the fourth round to Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas. He is currently in Lyon competing in the semifinals against Czech Tomas Berdych.
For her part, if her ankle injury allows, Bouchard will open her French Open against Japan’s Risa Ozaki, ranked no. 72 in the world. The 23-year-old will be looking to regain her Madrid form where she defeated Maria Sharapova and Angelique Kerber to reach the third round. Bouchard suffered an ankle injury in practice earlier this week and was forced to withdraw from her final warm up tournament in Nurnberg. In 2016 at Roland-Garros, she was beaten in the second round by Switzerland’s Timea Bacsinszky.
Meanwhile, Abanda qualified for the main draw of a Grand Slam for the second time in her career on Friday thanks to a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Su Jeong Jang of Korea. This will be the 20-year-old’s first French Open main draw appearance.
