Local girls making a mark at the Rogers Cup

Marie-Eve Pelletier was a break-point away from turning last night into the biggest night in the history of Quebecois Tennis. Already leading by one set in her second round match with Aussie Nicole Pratt at the Rogers Cup, the 24 year old quebecoise failed to put away a key game that effectively swung the momentum back in Pratt’s favour. Though she played hard in the third set, there were too many missed opportunities for her to pull out the win. The Montreal media has been saying that she just ran out of gas by the third set and, based on what I saw, that may well have been the case. I’d be more inclined to say that the pressure of being in front of the home crowd got to her. Fatigue can lead to mental errors, but so can intense pressure and stress.

Montreal isn’t an easy place to compete when you’re an athlete. I’ve heard the media be compared to a pack of wild dogs in the past. It’s almost as if the city’s sports pundits have adopted Al Davis’ “Just win, baby!” catch phrase as their own collective mantra. Compare les Canadiens to the now-defunct Expos. One is a source of pride while the other became virtually ignored as the losses continued to mount.

Last night was a bit different. Following on the heels of Stephanie Dubois’ bittersweet victory over Kim Clijsters, I’ve no doubt that the Stade Uniprix was buzzing at the possibility of two home-grown talents making the round of 16. It was already a pretty big deal in the local media that 2 of their own had made it into the 2nd round in the first place. Both had pulled off upsets in the previous round. In fact, the stands were full to watch the girls play—attendance for these two matches would have been significantly less had Dubois and Pelletier not made it this far. And since the tournament has already had more than its share of withdrawls, injuries and upsets of top seeds, I’m sure the organizers were hoping to ride Quebecois pride as far as they could.

So now Dubois has made it into the round of 16 and, truth be told, I’m not disappointed in that. It would have been nice if she had actually won the match (she was getting trounced and had already lost the first set 6-1 before Clijsters was forced to retire due to injury, trailing Dubois 3-2), but a win is a win, right? The 19 year old from Laval plays with a lot of genuine enthusiasm and will benefit from the additional experience she’ll gain. I like how she plays, throwing her heart and soul into every swing of the racket. Doesn’t hurt that she’s pretty cute, either.
So, like the rest of the city, I’ll have my TV tuned to RDS (or maybe TSN) to see how this plays out for her. Bonne chance, Stéphanie!