“It puts a lot of belief in tennis in Canada,” Auger-Aliassime said in Miami off all the maple-flavoured success. Once Raonic and his thunderbolt serves started winning tournaments in 2011, it was the first time a Canadian had success in singles tennis in decades. “It gave the next generation of Canadian players a sense of confidence that they could belong,” Downey says. Shapovalov was largely taught by his tennis-pro mother, although he has worked in recent years with Tennis Canada coach Martin Laurendeau. “It absolutely is.”Such confidence, from a Canadian tennis executive.

Source: National Post March 29, 2019 22:52 UTC