GRANBY, Que. – Isabelle Boulais just turned 15 in April, and she needs one more win to qualify at the $50,000 Granby Challenger.
This is the eighth pro event Boulais has tried to qualify for (she received a wild card into her first one, a $10K tournament in Vancouver).
Without waxing poetic on her “potential” (any regular readers of Open Court know I don’t tip the big toe into those waters), it’s worth noting that rarely have we heard the ball come off the racquet of a 15-year-old with such an authoritative BOOM.
She really crushes it and on Sunday against Sonja Molnar, a countrywoman 10 years her senior ranked No. 678 who has just come off a tournament win at a $10K in the U.S., she pulled off an impressive 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 victory.
We will say one thing we rarely say about juniors – and indeed about most women players. She’s got a real good-looking serve.
We’ll see on Monday against another Canadian, Maria Patrascu (a lefty), whether Boulais can keep it going and make it to the main draw.
Boulais had a good result at a Grade 2 junior clay-court event in South American earlier this year. She also won two titles down there with Bianca Andreescu, who is even younger, at 14.
And she has premium tennis genes: she’s the daughter of longtime Canadian player Patricia Hy-Boulais and Yves Boulais, a respected coach who has worked with, among others, Genie Bouchard and Alison Riske.