Montreal (AFP)
Leylah Fernandez, 19, finalist for the ladies, Félix Auger-Aliassime, 21, in the last four for the men: at the US Open, these young shoots highlighted the density of promising young talents from Canada.
In New York, the Quebecer Fernandez was one of the sensations of the fortnight.
She managed to block the road of three of the five best in the world: the Japanese Naomi Osaka (3rd) winner last year, the Ukrainian Elina Svitolina (5th) then the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka (2nd).
Before losing in the final, victim of the tournament's other surprise, the 18-year-old Briton Emma Raducanu, born ... in Toronto.
All this, two years after the feat of her compatriot Bianca Andreescu, 21 years old and the first Canadian to win a Grand Slam, at the expense of Serena Williams.
Auger-Aliassime, of Montreal origin, reached for the first time the last four of a Major, beaten in the semi-final by the Russian Daniil Medvedev, world No.2.
Eighth finalist at the Australian Open, quarter-finalist at Wimbledon, his progress has been constant this year.
He will be 11th in the world on Monday, just ahead of his compatriot Denis Shapovalov, 22, another incarnation of the rising Canadian generation.
The exploits of Fernandez and Auger-Aliassime are amazing for a country which still has only a small number of practitioners and infrastructures, but which has been able to build in fifteen years a cutting-edge industry with a strong investment in detection.
- "Change of mentality" -
"When I arrived, the mentality was rather to be satisfied with playing well", tells AFP the French Louis Borfiga, who put his bags in Canada in 2006 to take over the Elite section of the Federation.
The year Greg Rusedski retired, he who had become in 1997 at the US Open the first of his country to play a Grand Slam final, emulated in 2016 by Milos Raonic, at Wimbledon.
Félix Auger-Aliassime against Daniil Medvedev in the semi-final of the US Open at Flushing Meadows, September 10, 2021 Kena Betancur AFP / Archives
"We tried to establish a winning mentality, to want to go to the end of the tournaments and not just be content to play a good match," adds the man who trained Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gaël Monfils.
The whole structure has been reorganized: a national center created in Montreal with better trained coaches, some recruited abroad (especially in France), physical trainers, but also the creation of clay courts in a country that does not had none before.
This policy quickly bore fruit: Eugenie Bouchard, finalist at Wimbledon in 2014, and Raonic paved the way.
Soon followed by Andreescu and Shapovalov, then today by Auger-Aliassime and Fernandez, even if the latter was mainly built in contact with his father, a former pro football player who took charge of his career, when she was dismissed at 7 years of a Canadian development program.
"Today Canada is cited as a reference. If I had been told when I arrived that we would have so much success I would not have believed it. Because it is almost a mystery all the same, so many nuggets with so few practitioners ", confides Louis Borfiga, who is preparing to hand over at the end of September.
Bianca Andreescu crowned at the US Open, September 7, 2019 at Flushing Meadows CLIVE BRUNSKILL Getty / AFP / Archives
- Showcase of multicultural Canada -
The country also suffers from a lack of indoor courts, which are crucial infrastructures during the long Canadian winters.
More handicap compared to the great well-equipped tennis nations, even if the recent successes have allowed the federation to see the number of players climb.
"Now we are reaping the fruits that we have sown. The former have made dreams accessible" and "today the youngest are not afraid of anything," Sylvain Bruneau, former Andreescu coach, told AFP , now in charge of the Federation's women's program.
In the country, these players have also become the symbol of multicultural Canada.
All of them have at least one immigrant parent.
Denis Shapovalov during the third round of the US Open, September 4, 2021 AL BELLO Getty / AFP / Archives
Leylah Fernandez's mother was born in Toronto to Filipino parents and her father Jorge arrived from Ecuador at the age of four with his family.
Sam Aliassime, Félix's father immigrated to Canada from Togo.
Bianca Andreescu was born in Toronto to Romanian parents.
Denis Shapovalov, born in Tel Aviv to Russian immigrant parents, arrived in Canada at nine months old.
"We are a family of immigrants, we had nothing and Canada opened its doors to us. If it had not done so, I would not have been able to give this chance to my daughter", recently confided , moved, Jorge Fernandez to the Canadian press.
© 2021 AFP