The wildcards for the 2015 Rogers Cup have been announced. The headline player to receive a wildcard is Wimbledon quarterfinalist Vasek Pospisil. Due to him having to defend points at the Citi Open (was a finalist last year), he fell out of the top 30. After looking at the field, it looks like he would’ve gotten in without any problems if he were still there.
The men’s wildcards
Philip Bester, Frank Dancevic, and Filip Peliwo join Pospisil as the other three Canadians who were granted wildcards into the main draw. Bester is the Canadian number three and is ranked outside the world’s top 200. The last event he played in was the Granby Challenger in his home country. He had a fantastic showing at the Challenger event but would go on to lose in the final to Vincent Millot.
30-year-old Frank Dancevic is the second of the three other wildcards. Dancevic hails from Niagara Falls and is just ranked a few spots below Besler. His last tournament was in the Lexington Challenger. He would only win one match before getting knocked out by Guilherme Clezar. In Granby, he lost his opening match to Shuichi Sekiguchi in three sets.
The final male wildcard goes to 21-year-old Filip Peliwo. The French native was born in which has allowed him to get the wildcard as well as his Canadian Davis Cup representation. Just like the other two men, Peliwo played in Granby. However, his fate was the same as Dancevic’s losing in the opening round to American Eric Quigley.
Auger-Aliassime shutout of wildcard qualifying
The shocking news was the fact that 14-year-old Felix Auger-Aliassime did not get a wildcard into at least the qualifying draw. The four men who were given wildcards into the qualifiers were Ernests Gulbis, Peter Polansky, Brayden Schnur, and 17-year-old David Volfson. The fact that Aliassime is not too far into his teenage years could be the reason he did not receive one, but Eugene Lapierre, the tournament director in Montreal, said that the caliber of the qualifying event might be too much for the 14-year-old.
However, that statement loses most of its validity due to Volfson being given one with a less stellar recent resume compared to the 14-year-old. Aliassime qualified for the Drummondville Challenger while Volfson lost in the first round of qualifying. Aliassime also made the quarterfinals in Granby losing to Yoshihito Nishioka. If anything, the stage for the qualifiers is more suited for the 14-year-old than the 17-year-old. It’s a disappointment many won’t get to see tennis’ next wonderkid, but we’ll see if Volfson can live up to his talents this week.