Alumni dominate at the French Open

It was a great three weeks for Canadians and Odlum Brown VanOpen alumni competing at the French Open in Paris as they secured French Open titles in the Women’s Singles, Men’s Doubles, Mixed Doubles, Women’s Doubles and Junior Girls events.

Women’s Singles:  Alumna Jelena Ostapenko won after launching an all-out attack including 54 winners and 54 unforced errors in the women’s final against a highly defensive and tenacious Simona Halep.  Ostapenko eventually won 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 to claim her first tour-level trophy.

Men’s Doubles: Alumni Ryan Harrison and Michael Venus won the men’s doubles title beating Donald Young of the U.S. and Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico 7-6(5), 6-7(4), 6-3 to earn their first Grand Slam title.

Mixed Doubles: Alumna Gabriela Dabrowski became the first Canadian woman to claim a Grand Slam victory when she and her partner Rohan Bopanna from India defeated German Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Robert Farah of Colombia 2-6, 6-2, 12-10.

Women’s Doubles: Alumna Bethanie Mattek-Sands and partner Lucie Safarova claimed their second French Open doubles title after defeating the Australian duo Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua 6-2, 6-1.

Junior Girls Doubles: Canada’s success at the 2017 French Open also included Bianca Andreescu and Carson Branstine clinching the junior girls doubles title.  These No. 1 seeded sixteen year olds outplayed Russians Olesya Pervushina and Anastasia Potapova 6-1, 6-3 to secure their second Grand Slam title together following their win at the Australian Open in January. (Photo by Peter Figura)