Victoria Mboko, now in the third round of qualifying, aims to join her compatriots
[TORONTO, ON] May 22, 2025 – The draw for the 2025 French Open was made on Thursday, and six Canadians are set to take to the clay courts at Stade Roland Garros for the second Grand Slam of the season. The singles main draw will feature Leylah Annie Fernandez (Laval, QC), Félix Auger-Aliassime (Montreal, QC), Denis Shapovalov (Richmond Hill, ON), and Gabriel Diallo (Montreal, QC), while the doubles event includes Gabriela Dabrowski (Ottawa, ON), Fernandez, and Diallo. Canada’s top-ranked wheelchair tennis player, Rob Shaw (North Bay, ON), received a wild card and will compete in quad singles and doubles.
Fernandez, ranked No. 27 on the WTA Tour, will begin her French Open campaign against Serbia’s Olga Danilovic (No. 34). Their only previous meeting came at the Billie Jean King Cup Play-offs in 2021 as the Canadian secured a 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 victory. Should Fernandez advance to the third round, she could potentially face world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka. Earlier this season, the 22-year-old reached the third round at the Australian Open before falling to world No. 2 Coco Gauff of the United States. Fernandez will also be playing doubles with one of her regular partners, Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan.
World No. 5 Dabrowski will once again team up with Erin Routliffe, ranked No. 3 in doubles. The duo has won five titles together, including the 2023 US Open, the 2024 WTA Finals, and the WTA 500 event in Stuttgart this April. Dabrowski and Routliffe will be the No. 2 seeds and will await the doubles draw to find out their path to the final.
On the men’s side, Shapovalov enters the tournament as the top ranked Canadian at No. 27 on the ATP Tour. Back in February, the 26-year-old won his career-best title at the ATP 500 event in Dallas and hopes to build on his strong season in Paris. Shapovalov will take on Spaniard Pedro Martinez (No. 48) in the first round, having previously beaten him on the clay courts at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in 2020.
Auger-Aliassime, ranked 30th in the world, will face Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi (No. 39) in the opening round, in what will be their first meeting on tour. After winning a pair of ATP 250 titles to start the year – in Montpellier and Adelaide – the Montrealer aims to add one this week ahead of the French Open, as he remains in contention at the Bitpanda Hamburg Open, an ATP 500 event. On Thursday, he will face Frenchman Alexandre Muller in the quarter-final.
Diallo, who made his Grand Slam debut at Roland-Garros in 2024, will enter this year’s event as world No. 53 and is expected to clash against Argentinian Francisco Cerundolo (No. 18) in the first round. This will mark the second meeting of their careers after they faced off in 2024 at the ATP 250 Almaty Open – Diallo taking the match 6-4, 6-2. Last month, Diallo made waves by reaching the quarter-final of the ATP 1000 tournament in Madrid, proving his abilities on the red clay. He will also be making his Grand Slam doubles debut, pairing up with Brit Jacob Fearnley.
Shapovalov, Auger-Aliassime, and Diallo are all in the same quarter and can potentially face each other prior to the semi-finals. The top players in their quarter include Germany’s Alexander Zverev (No. 3), Serbia’s Novak Djokovic (No. 6), Daniil Medvedev (No. 11), and Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov (No. 16).
In the wheelchair tennis draw, Shaw will play in the quad division, having been awarded a wild card into singles and doubles. The North Bay native reached the quad doubles semi-finals at the Australian Open earlier this year.
About Tennis Canada
Founded in 1890, Tennis Canada is a non-profit, national sport association with a mission to lead the growth, development and promotion of tennis in Canada and a vision to be a world-leading tennis nation. We value teamwork, passion, integrity, innovation and excellence. Tennis Canada owns and operates the premier National Bank Open presented by Rogers WTA and ATP Tour events, four professional ATP and ITF sanctioned events and financially supports four other professional tournaments in Canada. Tennis Canada operates junior national training centres/programs in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.
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