They will therefore be four Canadians to tread the clay of the Spanish capital.
Eugenie Bouchard earned her ticket to the main draw at the Madrid tennis tournament on Tuesday morning after narrowly defeating American Elizabeth Mandlik 6-3, 6-2 in the second and final round of qualifying.
Bouchard, who points at 285e rank in the world rankings, joined her compatriots Bianca Andreescu, Leylah Annie Fernandez and Rebecca Marino in the women’s main draw.
The 2014 Wimbledon finalist and Mandlik had never faced each other before in their professional careers.
The 29-year-old harnessed her power to register four aces against Mandlik, and her first serve also proved more effective than her opponent’s. Bouchard, however, allowed the 147e world racket to stay in the match by conceding three breaks in four occasions, while she only stole the American’s serve three times in nine opportunities in total.
The day before, the Quebecer had taken advantage of the abandonment of the Spaniard Sara Sorribes Tormo when she was leading 6-1, 4-1 in the first round of qualifying to progress in the table.
Bouchard is trying to move up the world rankings, after reaching fifth place on October 20, 2014. However, the results are slow in coming; she notably lost in the second round of the tournament in Oeiras, Portugal, last week.
Marino will face China’s Lin Zhu later today.
For his part, Andreescu, 23e Madrid’s top-seeded tournament earned a second-round bye, while Fernandez will have a first-round date with 15-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva.