Canadian update: Bouchard and Raonic open in Paris, paddlers podium strong
Eugenie Bouchard gets first WTA win, Roland Garros commences
It was a solid weekend for Canadian tennis. Eugenie Bouchard stepped up and won her first WTA title in Nuremberg on Saturday. The win elevated the 20-year-old to 16th in the WTA rankings. The evening of her win Bouchard caught a quick flight to Paris, with Roland Garros beckoning. Today, she dispatched Israel’s Shahar Peer 6-0, 6-2 in the first round of the French Open. Milos Raonic also opened with a win. On Sunday the 23-year-old crushed 27 aces to beat Australian Nick Krygios. Other prominent Canadians include Peter Polansky who lost to Tomas Berdych, with Sharon Fichman, Aleksandra Wozniak, Vasek Pospisil and doubles king Daniel Nestor yet to play at time of writing.
Photo: @WTA
Paddlers haul World Cup medals
Canada’s Olympic medallist paddlers won four World Cup medals between them in Szeged, Hungary. Mark Oldershaw collected two silver, in the C-1 500m and C-1 5000m. Mark de Jonge won a silver in the flat out K-1 200m and Adam van Koeverden scored a bronze in the K-1 500m. It was the final ICF World Cup stop. The Canadians will now return home for National Team Trials at the end of June.
Watch: Mark de Jonge win World Cup silver
Kayak image: Balint Vekassy
Sprint men qualify for Worlds
Canada’s 4x100m relay squad will run next year in Beijing after a sixth place finish at the IAAF World Relays. The team of Gavin Smellie, Dontae Richards-Kwok, Justyn Warner and Jared Connaughton ran 38.55 in the final, and needed that top-8 to ensure an appearance at the 2015 IAAF World Championships where Canada is the reigning bronze medallist team. As Asif Hossain writes, Aaron Brown, one of Canada’s quickest men was absent from the Bahamas meet. Here’s a good idea of what a relay meet in the Bahamas looks like.
Notable performance: Two-time Olympian Catharine Pendrel was second in a cross-country mountain bike World Cup race in the Czech Republic.
