Wild cards announced for Rogers Cup tennis tournaments

Canada's Frank Dancevic returns a ball to opponent Kimmer Coppejans during a match at the Davis Cup in Ostend, Belgium on Sunday, July 19, 2015. (Kyle Lapham / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

TORONTO -- Veteran Canadian tennis player Frank Dancevic will make his 14th career appearance in the main draw at the Rogers Cup, joining four other Canadians announced as wild-card entries on Wednesday.

Dancevic, Steven Diez, Peter Polansky, Francoise Abanda and Aleksandra Wozniak will join previously announced Wimbledon junior men's champion Denis Shapovalov in the main draws of the tennis events in Toronto and Montreal.

France's Caroline Garcia also received a wild-card berth in the Montreal tournament.

Canada will now be represented in the Toronto men's draw and the Montreal women's draw by nine players, as the wild cards join Wimbledon finalist Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., Vancouver's Vasek Pospisil and Montreal's Eugenie Bouchard in their respective tournaments. Raonic, Pospisil, and Bouchard earned direct entry into the main draw.

Dancevic, from Niagara Falls, Ont., is former Rogers Cup quarter-finalist. He has qualified for two other ATP World Tour tournaments this year, making the third round of Nottingham and second round at Newport.

Shapovalov, from Richmond Hill, Ont., will play his first career Rogers Cup. The 17-year-old became the third Canadian to win a junior Grand Slam singles title at Wimbledon.

Diez, form Toronto, advanced through qualifying to play the ATP World Tour 500 event in Hamburg earlier this month. He has also won three Futures titles and made the final of a $75,000 ATP Challenger in Moscow. The 25-year-old, at a career-high ranking of No. 190, will be making his Rogers Cup main draw debut.

Thornhill native Polansky has won 14 matches in a row on the ITF Pro Circuit in Canada, winning Futures titles in Richmond, B.C., and Kelowna, B.C. This will be his ninth Rogers Cup main draw.

At No. 274, Montreal's Abanda is the second-highest ranked female player in Canada. The 19-year-old's best result on the season so far is winning the $25,000 Irapuato Challenger in Mexico in March, her second career pro title.

Former world No. 21 Wozniak, from Blainville, Que., was a Rogers Cup quarter-finalist in 2012. Currently world No. 472, the veteran will be participating in her 11th Rogers Cup main draw.

Bianca Andreescu (Mississauga, Ont.), Gabriela Dabrowski (Ottawa), Charlotte Robillard-Millette (Blainville), and Carol Zhao (Richmond Hill) were awarded wild-card berths into the women's qualifying draw in Montreal.

In Toronto, Felix Auger-Aliassime (Montreal), Philip Bester (North Vancouver), Brayden Schnur (Pickering, Ont.), and Benjamin Sigouin (Vancouver) have received qualifying wild cards.