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Newsletter By Jackson Starr, William Bailey, Adam Beauchemin, Dan Plouffe & Kaitlyn LeBoutillier
It took a while for Gabriela Dabrowski to get her first match under her belt at the 2024 Olympics, but it was worth the wait for her debut as she picked up the win in her opening-round women’s doubles tennis competition.
It was a poised and controlled victory for the 32-year-old from Ottawa and her 21-year-old partner Leylah-Annie Fernandez of Laval, QC as they took on and took down the hosting French duo of Clara Burel and Varvara Gracheva in straight sets.
It was a dominant start to the match for the Canadian duo as they picked up a clean 6-1 first set win in 30 minutes. Canada was able to break France early and control throughout the rest of the set to take it handedly.
In the second set, both sides were able to consistently hold serve. Dabrowski and Fernandez had a couple strong opportunities to break the French but the resilient duo of Bure and Gracheva held firm. On one occasion Canada held a 40-15 lead trying to break, but the French were able to battle back and win the game to take a 5-4 lead.
It was not long before Canada was able to break through. With a strong game in which Dabrowski and Fernandez only allowed France one point with serve, they were able to break and take a 6-5 lead. They then held serve again to cleanly close out the match.
“The first set was pretty clinical, and I think we started out pretty strong,” Dabrowski told Ottawa Sports Pages reporter Jackson Starr. “We always expect opponents to improve. A 6-1 set is great, but it’s not the match. I’m really proud of the way we hung in there and we held serve, just looking for an opportunity to break and finally at 5-5 it came.
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“We capitalized very nicely and then Leylah served it out. I was really pleased with the second set even though the score was closer.”
This was the first instance in which Dabrowski and Fernandez have competed with one another since 2023 at the Billie Jean King Cup, a tournament Canada won for the first time with a large amount of help from the duo.
“We’re very happy to be on the court with each other,” Dabrowski said of playing with Fernandez. “It’s super fun. Can’t wait to do it again.”
Fernandez was coming off of a hard-fought singles victory earlier in the day against the Spaniard Cristina Buçsa in two sets.
“Coming out on the doubles with Gaby gave me extra motivation, extra energy to keep going and keep grinding,” Fernandez highlighted. “It just felt good being on court and competing at the Olympics. I think that’s enough motivation to do well.”
With the pair moving along after finding a positive result, Dabrowski now shifts her focus to tomorrow and a new doubles partner in mixed competition with Felix Auger-Aliassime, who won his opening singles match.
No matter the partner, Dabrowski says her experience in past competition with both her Canadian teammates sets her up well for success in the coming days.
“Feeling really good,” she said of the sentiment among the three Canadian tennis competitors who are still alive in their Paris events. “We’re still pretty full on and (trying to) keep it alive.”
Jessica Gaudreault takes long-awaited first plunge into Olympic competition
Also in action today was Barrhaven’s Jessica Gaudreault and the Canadian women’s water polo team, who played their first game of the Paris 2024 Olympics and fell 12-7 to favoured Hungary.
“I think that we fought pretty hard,” Gaudreault signalled in an interview with the Sports Pages’ Starr. “We stayed in the game. Unfortunately, there were just some small mishaps that led to big goals for Hungary on our part, but when we’re organized and set up, we have a pretty good game defensively.”
It was a difficult start for the Canadians, falling behind 4-1 in the first quarter. The team was able to settle itself offensively in the second and third quarters to make the game close, however the strong and lethal Hungarian attack came through, managing its lead and eventually separating in the fourth quarter to seal the victory.
Gaudreault said that part of the reason for the rough start came from the fact that Hungary had already played a game in the tournament, and that Canada was still getting settled in early.
“I’m glad it was only the first quarter that it took us to get into it,” added the 30-year-old. “Sometimes it can hold off a little bit longer, but for sure after that first quarter, we got back in and had a chance (to) win the game.”
For her part, Gaudreault made some large saves throughout the contest, standing strong on a multitude of high-danger scoring opportunities for the Hungarians. Gaudreault stopped seven of the 19 shots she faced, including some big saves in extra-player situations.
“I need to work more on the angles,” she said of her performance. “I could definitely step up a little bit more and help my team out on that. We just have to get more shots on offence. Teams can’t out-shoot us. That’s a big problem.”
A surprise Olympic team alternate for the last Games in Tokyo, Gaudreault said that playing in front of a large Olympic crowd for the first time was a unique experience for the entire team.
“We were all talking afterwards, it was the first time that we entered a foreign stadium and we heard people singing the national anthem, chanting ‘Canada,’” she highlighted. “When the anthem was playing, it definitely was more of an emotional moment. I think a lot of us felt good.”
Canada’s next match in the preliminary round will be on Wednesday against China, a key contest that the underdog Canadians would like to win in their quest to place among the top-4 in their five-team group to make the quarter-final round.
“I think now that we’ve realized how big the crowds are and how loud everything is, we definitely have to work on our communication and making sure that those little mishaps don’t happen,” Gaudreault indicated. “We don’t want China to capitalize on it (like) Hungary did and I think being way more aggressive on offence (is another key), and I know, I know, we will be able to. Hungary and China are two very different teams defensively, so just take those opportunities as they come.”
Sam Zakutney revels in second chance to compete on Olympic stage
One other Ottawa athlete in competition on Monday was Sam Zakutney in the men’s artistic gymnastics team final. Putting up yet another strong display after a solid qualifying round two days earlier, Zakutney and the Canadians were in competition for fifth place throughout the event. A difficult final two rotations set the team back to a final finish of eighth, with a total score of 245.426 across the six rotations.
For his part, Zakutney scored 54.499 for his team, while competing in the parallel bars, horizontal bar, floor exercise and pommel horse competitions. His highest score came on the parallel bars with an impressive 14.333 while on the second rotation.
That was a clean performance from Zakutney who let out a massive burst of emotion after he was able to stick the landing. That was part of Canada’s second-best rotation, finding a 42.165 on the parallel bars. Canada’s best rotation overall was the vault, where the team scored a 43.166.
This was the first time Canada has sent a full men’s team to the Olympics since 2008.
Ottawa Olympians in action on July 30:
Preview: Lois Betteridge’s long path to Olympics finally heads downstream
Ottawa canoe slalom paddler Lois Betteridge has represented Canada at 10 world championships between 2015 and 2023 but she’s now amid her first Olympic Games experience.
Betteridge fell in love with the whitewater sport since she first tried it at the age of 11. Growing up, Betteridge’s parents were excursion guides. She found herself in a boat from a very young age and jumped right into the sport competitively with the Ottawa River Runners. Despite that growing love and a continued level of success in the sport, an Olympic Games was not on her radar initially.
“It was pretty cool to be in control of your own boat, so I fell in love with kayaking at that point. That’s the thing – it was really about kayaking for many years, not about the Olympics,” Betteridge told the Ottawa Sports Pages’ William Bailey. “But I guess I was always competing, and it was always the goal to strive for the highest level.”
Betteridge took a run at making the Tokyo Olympics, but fell short. When she clinched her spot for the Paris Games back in March, the emotion was real.
“I’ve been training and competing for a number of years now, so it was pretty special,” the 26-year-old highlighted. “I was going into the race quite confident, but I was also quite confident in the qualifier in 2020 racing for the Tokyo spot and I missed out on that one, so I was a bit apprehensive before the race. But I was also super excited to go and give it my all.”
Betteridge secured her berth in the women’s canoe event, but she also got the chance to race in the kayak event on Saturday in Paris. She earned a place in the semi-final round before bowing out and finishing 20th overall. The first heats of the canoe event take place tomorrow morning.
Betteridge is ranked higher in canoe (62nd in the world) than kayak (76th), and a step higher still in the kayak cross event (41st), which begins Friday.
“Going to the Olympics is one thing, but I will be racing against the top-20 boats in the world,” she underlined. “We are all there to try our best and see what comes of the race.”
Also in competition on Tuesday will be Eric Peters, who will return to action in the men’s individual archery competition for the start of its elimination rounds.
“I’m going to go out there and I’m going to shoot the best I can,” he told the Ottawa Sports Pages’ Adam Beauchemin after qualifying 36th in the ranking round. “The matches on the stage, that’s where I’m best.
So, I’m going to do my best and just take advantage of that situation as best I can and see what we can do.”
Also competing tomorrow is Gabriela Dabrowski, who is scheduled to be in action for a second day in a row.
Dabrowski will be competing in the first round of mixed doubles competition on Tuesday alongside Felix Auger-Aliasime, who also has a singles match earlier in the day. The two are set to go up against Great Britain as the fifth match of the day on court seven.
Dabrowski and Auger-Aliassime played together at the Tokyo Olympics and fell in the first round.
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