Canadian male tennis players have won 19 singles titles since 2011, but no majors or Masters 1000 titles.
Denis Shapovalov, now ranked world number 28, defeated 76-ranked Aleksandar Kovacevic 6-4, 6-2 in the ATP 250 final in Los Cabos, Mexico on Sunday. Shapovalov faced no player in the top 70 all week.
“We have been working for quite a few years now and it hasn’t been easy coming back from injury. But all the work we’ve done, it is really paying off,” said Shapovalov, who missed months after Wimbledon 2023 and fell to number 140 in the rankings from a high of number 10 in September 2020, according to the ATP’s website.
Shapovalov, who has garnered $13.6 million in prize money on tour, won his 3 previous titles on indoor hardcourts: Stockholm 250 in 2019; Belgrade 250 in 2024 and Dallas in early 2025.
Milos Raonic, Canada’s most lauded male singles player ever, reached world number 3 in November 2016 and won $20.7 million on tour. But he only won smaller titles in San Jose (twice), Chennai, Bangkok, Washington, St. Petersburg and Brisbane between 2011 and 2016. He lost finals in Canada 2013, Paris-Bercy 2014 and at Indian Wells and Wimbledon in 2016, as well as Cincinnati in 2020.
Felix Auger-Aliassime, now ranked 28th, reached world number 6 in November 2022 and has earned $15.7 million on tour. He won 6 smaller titles on indoor hardcourts (Rotterdam, Florence, Antwerp, Montpellier and Basel twice) plus one outdoor hardcourt title in Adelaide in early 2025. He has lost 11 finals including at the 2024 Madrid Masters, where he benefited from walk-overs.
Gabriel Diallo, now ranked 38, won his only title at Hertogenbosch earlier in 2025 on outdoor grass.
Vasek Pospisil, the pride of Vernon, BC who will soon retire at age 35, garnered $7.2 million in prize money. He won the Wimbledon doubles final with Jack Sock in 2014, one of the greatest achievements ever in Canadian tennis, but won no singles titles.
Canadian women have enjoyed greater success than the men at bigger events.
Bianca Andreescu, now 25 years old and ranked 185 after appendix surgery in February 2025, won Indian Wells, Toronto and the US Open in 2019, beating Serena Williams in New York. She reached world number 4 but has missed much of the past six seasons due to shoulder, knee, back and other injuries.
Leylah Fernandez, now ranked world number 35 at age 22, lost the US Open final to Emma Raducanu in 2021 and reached world number 13 in August 2022. She has won smaller titles in Monterrey (twice) and Hong Kong.
Genie Bouchard, who is retiring at age 31, reached world number 5 and made the semi-finals in Melbourne and Roland Garros in 2014 before losing the 2014 Wimbledon final to Petra Kvitova. Though she only won one singles title (Nuremberg 2014) during her career, she won $7 million on tour and was one of the highest paid female athletes in history, thanks to endorsement deals with Coca-Cola, Rogers, Nike, Babolat, Aviva, New Balance and many others.
words and images copyright Christopher Johnson Globalite Media, all rights reserved
Grand Slam Magazine 