Article and Photography By Mike McIntyre
Count Canada’s Françoise Abanda as someone who was happy to turn the page on 2018. The just-turned 22 year old had a trying season both on and off the tennis court last season and says she is ready to grind it out in order to get things back on track.
On the cusp of being ranked in the top 100 towards the end of 2017, Abanda was unable to take a step forward in her professional growth due to a combination of injuries and off-court distractions that stalled her progress.
Abanda wisely decided to skip the Australian tennis swing to start this year, opting instead to play a series of Challenger events in the United States. Despite the lure of attempting to qualify for the first Grand Slam of the season she chose the path that she felt would help her improve her ranking for better opportunities down the road.
“I just decided to play smaller events regarding my ranking and also I’m looking to playing more matches so I think it was just a smarter move to play some lower tournaments and try to grind and get a lot of matches under my belt.”
Abanda’s decision reaped some immediate success as she made her way to the finals in Daytona Beach where she ultimately fell to 6th seed Anna Bondar by a score of 6-7(3), 7-6(5), 7-5. She followed that up with a first round loss in Plantation, Florida and Midland, Michigan but nevertheless seems inspired to stay positive as she gets her game back to where she believes it can be.
Her assessment of 2018 is fair given her 14-20 record which includes both qualifying and main draw matches at the Challenger and WTA level. Abanda also reveals an ability to keep things in perspective in her comments and allows for a bit of self-depreciating humour as well.
“For me as a player it was obviously not a good year. Not a year I wanted to have. It’s the ups and downs of tennis. My situation is also difficult because I don’t have a full time coach. It’s tough to improve my game. I’m trying to manage everything and hopefully (this) year is going to be better – it shouldn’t be too hard (laughs).”
One moment that will stand out for many when looking back on Abanda’s season in 2018 were the comments she made on Twitter following her ascension to the No. 1 ranking in Canada. She was tagged in a tweet that stated that she would not receive the same kind of attention that Genie Bouchard did when she assumed the role of Canada’s top female tennis player. Abanda now admits she did not realize the swift reaction she would receive when she replied that she would never receive that kind of attention because she was black.
When I asked her about that decision and whether or not she has any regrets about her response she replied without hesitation and addressed the fallout full on.
“This is the most asked question of my life. For me I was just speaking for myself. My intention was not to attack anybody or point fingers but it’s a delicate subject because everybody has their opinions. In a way I’m happy that I just spoke out for myself and the next up-and-coming girls or guys that are going to be in my situation and maybe it will help them. For me I was just speaking on my reality. I did have a lot of people supporting me and understanding where I was coming from but I did get a lot of heat because of it. I definitely got a lot of social media heat, negative heat, and that’s why now I just try to stay away from it and just kind of be low key about. I think it’s just better off for me to leave it at that.”
Challenges for Abanda this year will remain solely with her tennis she says and in that sense the biggest obstacle for her remains the grind of life as a tennis player ranked outside of the top 100 on the WTA. Not a big fan of travel, Abanda feels the wear and tear of life as a travelling tennis professional trying to deal with the ebbs and flows of competition.
“The biggest challenge for me is the number of weeks you travel. You’re just never home so it’s tough. The second thing is to find consistency in your game and be able to come up with results every week, every tournament. It’s unrealistic – you’re not going to make the finals every tournament but every player is taking to go deep every week so it’s demanding. So I would say the expectations and the whole travelling. Personally I don’t love to travel.”
An area of positivity amongst these challenges for Abanda is the support she has received over the years from Tennis Canada. She is quick to point out how much her Tennis Federation has been there for her since she was a junior tennis player. This has been a refrain that many Canadian tennis players have echoed and is certainly not the case in every country.
“Yeah it’s definitely a grind but in a way I’m still happy because being a Canadian athlete I’ve had the Federation supporting me throughout my junior career. They really helped a lot for sure. I think we’re lucky compared to other Federations. In that financial aspect I think the Canadian Federation is doing well. For me I’m grateful to have been in that system. It gives you the opportunity to save up during your junior career and prepare while they are paying your expenses.”
Abanda’s next event will be the Fed Cup where she will join Bianca Andreescu, Rebecca Marino and Gaby Dabrowski representing Canada in their tie February 9th and 10th in the Netherlands. Representing her country is something that Abanda never tires of and she is hoping to see a better outcome from last Spring when she had to withdraw just ahead of Canada’s tie against Ukraine due to a concussion she sustained in warm-up.
“I’ve always had great Fed Cup experiences. I’ve always come out and played at a really good level. I really like how you have a whole team, you’re really taken care of as a player – like a top-ten athlete, which I don’t really get when I’m in regular tournaments. I’m really happy to rep Canada and I’m hoping to play more Fed Cup. Last year was unfortunate because I was supposed to play the singles with Genie, but Bianca had to replace me because I fell during my warm up. So I ended up not playing at all.”
Finally healthy and excited at the opportunity to represent her country in International competition, this Fed Cup tie offers Abanda the opportunity to move past the unfortunate injury she sustained a year ago. At only 22 years old, the young Canadian has already accumulated her share of lessons on and off the tennis court and seems poised to do whatever it takes to make sure that 2019 is a step in the right direction as she continues her professional growth in the sport.
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