Canada's US Open performance was its worst in 15 years

All things considered, Canadian tennis fans have been rather spoiled when it comes to the US Open in recent years.

Sure, the country might not have produced a Roger Federer or Serena Williams-level talent that has a shot at winning just about every major tournament that they enter.

But for a country that historically has never been a tennis powerhouse, Canada’s had a pretty good run of sending their players deep into the tournament most years.

Of course, Bianca Andreescu’s 2019 win is the most iconic moment in Canadian tennis history, but there’s also Leylah Fernandez’s run to the 2021 final, Felix-Auger-Aliassime’s run to the 2021 semifinal, and a 2020 quarterfinal appearance from Denis Shapovalov.

If you wanted to find someone to cheer for each year in August, it generally wasn’t that hard as a Canadian to find a good story to latch onto and see how far they’d make it.

However, 2023 is providing a swift dose of reality that nothing is guaranteed in the tennis world.

If you’re watching the second round of the US Open (or anything past that) this week, you won’t be able to find a single Canadian player left in the men’s or women’s draw.

Fernandez, Auger-Aliassime, Milos Raonic, and Rebecca Marino all dropped their first-round matches, while Shapovalov and Andreescu withdrew prior to the tournament due to injuries.

It’s the country’s worst performance at the major since 2008, with at least one Canadian player making the second round in every tournament since.

Auger-Aliassime sits 15th on the world rankings, while Shapovalov sits 26th. Andreescu has dropped all the way down to 51st, while some two years removed from her own final appearance, Fernandez is all the way down at 67th.

No other Canadians sit in the top 100 for either gender, with 32-year-old Marino currently ranked 104th. If there’s going to be a long run in a major anytime soon from a Canadian, it’s probably coming from a player already well-known in their home country.

With four long months until the Australian Open kicks off in January, it’ll be a while before Canadian tennis fans will get a chance to watch their homegrown players compete on the biggest stage.

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