History will be made as three Montreal-area women - Eugenie Bouchard, Aleksandra Wozniak and first-timer Francoise Abanda - will be in the running for for a U.S. Open singles title starting Monday.
Abanda impressed many by breezing through a trio of qualifiers to barge her way into the main draw of the U.S. Open, but oddsmakers are still making Sabine Lisicki the heavy favourite in their first-round match-up.
One online betting site has made the German-born, 27th world-ranked Lisicki a 7-1 favourite and raised the odds against an Abanda victory to 18-1 if Lisicki wins the first set.
The 24-year-old Lisicki recently set the record for hardest serve by a female tennis player, knocking a serve at 131 mph (210.8 km/h) earlier this year against Ana Ivanovic at the Bank of the West Classic. She has earned over $5 million in career earnings and has been ranked as high as 12th two years ago.
Abanda beat Misa Eguchi 6-0, 6-2, Andreaa Mitu 6-1, 6-1 and Nao Hibino 6-1, 6-1 to earn her spot in the main draw of her maiden Grand Slam tourney.
If the world-ranked 205 Abanda could get by Lisicki, she’d face either 24-year-old Julia Glushko of Israel (ranked world 101) or Madison Brengle (123) of the USA. A victory in that match would put her on course for a likely showdown with Maria Sharapova.
Seventh world-ranked Eugenie Bouchard, a finalist at Wimebldon and semi-finalist at both the Australian and French Open this year, will kick off against Olga Govortsova of Belarus.
With a victory she’d then face Sonora Cirstea of Romania or Heather Watson of the U.K. Her third round opponent could then possibly be Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic.
Wozniak will lock horns with Kurumi Nara of Japan in the first round. With a victory she’d face either Belinda Bencic of Switzerland or Yania Wickmayer of Belgium, with a showdown against sixth-seeded Angelique Kerber likely to follow that potential win.
