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MONTREAL – Passed over for a main draw wild card at the Omnium Banque Nationale in favour of Vasek Pospisil, Monday is a tremendous opportunity for Montreal’s Alexis Galarneau.

Already, the 25-year-old from Laval posted an impressive straight-sets win over world No. 62 Facundo Diaz Acosta in trying conditions on Sunday.

Here’s what it looked like.

On Monday, he’ll face No. 74 Rinky Hijikata of Australia for a spot in the main draw.

Galarneau has never faced Hijikata, a product of the U.S. college system who has played the U.S. Challenger system as Galarneau has.

But if he can beat him, it will have given him far more this week than a free pass to the main draw would have. Perhaps not in prize money (so far), but definitely in terms of the 25-year-old’s ranking. That number currently stands at No. 233, lower than it has been in a year.

Losing in the first round of the main draw – which is pretty possible, given the strength of field even with the withdrawals and given Galarneau’s history at the event. – is worth 10 ranking points.

Just winning the first round of qualifying is worth 16 points. If Galarneau can win against on Monday, that’s 30 points – plus another 10 even if he were to lose in the first round of the main draw. That’s about a 30-spot jump in the rankings. And it would be a welcome one as Galarneau, who lost some ground and fell out of the top 200 last month after failing to defend the points from his Granby Challenger title a year ago, likely will be on the outside looking in at the US Open qualifying in a few weeks.

So there’s a fair bit at stake.

“Heartbreaking decision”

The Montreal event has always put emphasis on giving wild cards to Quebec players. It came to a head years ago when the tournament decided to award a main-draw wild card to Laval’s Stéphanie Dubois instead of WTA star Ana Ivanovic, who had been a previous champion. Okay, more than that – in a year replete with massive WTA defections, she basically saved the tournament.

But her ranking had fallen in the interim. And she needed a wild card to get in. And in that case – which seemed impossible to fathom at the time to online fans who don’t have knowledge of the market – the reality is that in Quebec, Dubois was more likely to draw fans to come support her than Ivanovic would. True story.

But in this case, it was two popular Canadian players. And a choice had to be made with the limited wild cards available, with Denis Shapovalov and Milos Raonic (and Gabriel Diallo) all needing one.

Tournament director Valérie Tétreault said it was a heartbreaking decision based on several factors, including Pospisil’s Davis Cup heroics. The 34-year-old, a semifinalist in Montreal in 2013 but currently ranked No. 610, hasn’t played much lately. He said Monday that he’s healthy for the first time in a long time at the moment.

“I went to (Galarneau) to explain. It was important for me, because I lived similar experiences as a player,” Tétreault told the Journal de Montréal. “In the moment, he was disappointed. But he quickly changed his attitude. And that’s what we shared; that there would never be a better way for him to prove to everyone involved in the decision that he deserved his spot, by winning the two qualifying matches and entering the main draw by the front door.”

It’s a reminder that despite what many people think – and wild-card decisions are endlessly debated – they are, essentially, gifts. If you get one, that’s a bonus. Local players are obviously prioritized, and players who hail from countries with big events clearly have an advantage over most others. But not many players, in actual fact “deserve” one. So if you don’t get that gift, you just have to do it the hard way.

First M1000 win in Canada

This is the fifth time Galarneau has played the Omnium Banque Nationale –  twice with wild cards into the qualifying in 2018 and 2019, and twice with wild cards into the main draw, in Montreal in 2022 and in Toronto last year.

This was the first time he’s won a match; in Montreal in 2022 he drew Grigor Dimitrov in the first round and was beaten 6-4, 7-5. And last year in Toronto he faced world No. 22 seed Francisco Cerundolo. Galarneau took him to three sets, but still was out in the end.

The victory over Diaz Acosta, who is mainly a clay-court player but has some game on all surfaces, was the best win, by ranking, of his career.

Galarneau told the media he had about 100 friends and family in the stands – tickets provided by the tournament, which charges a nominal fee to access the main stadium during the free qualifying weekend. He joked that this would have been a lot tougher had it been the main draw. And you could hear them; the atmosphere was terrific and he was mobbed for autographs and selfies upon leaving the court.

Hopefully they’ll all return today, even though it’s a Monday, at 11 a.m. to cheer him on.

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