PARIS — Canada's Alexis Galarneau is on the cusp of his first French Open main-draw appearance after a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over Brazil's Pedro Boscardin Dias on Wednesday in the second round of qualifying.
Galarneau advanced despite facing 17 break points. He persevered to save 15 of them, while breaking Boscardin Dias three times on seven chances.
The 27-year-old from Laval, Que., who was eliminated in the first round of the last two French Open qualifying tournaments, will face Italy's Federico Cina on Thursday for a spot in the main draw.
Galarneau was the only Canadian to advance to the final round of qualifying Wednesday after Liam Draxl and Bianca Andreescu lost their second-round matches.
Andreescu, the former world No. 4, fell 6-7 (2), 6-4, 6-4 to Slovakia's Viktoria Hruncakova.
The 25-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., lost in the second round of qualifying at Roland Garros for the second straight year. She advanced to the third round in 2024.
Draxl, 24, from Newmarket, Ont., fell 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 to top seed Jesper de Jong of the Netherlands in his second attempt to qualify for the clay-court Grand Slam. He lost in the first round of qualifying last year.
Félix Auger-Aliassime's chance to tune up for the upcoming French Open came to an end Wednesday with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 loss to American lucky loser Aleksandar Kovacevic in second-round action at the Hamburg Open.
Montreal's Auger-Aliassime, seeded first at the ATP 500 clay-court event, had a 4-1 lead in the deciding set before Kovacevic mounted an improbable comeback.
Auger-Aliassime had won his previous two matches against Kovacevic.
Kovacevic, who was initially eliminated in qualifying before getting a main-draw spot when Zizou Bergs withdrew, is the first American to reach the Hamburg quarterfinals since Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras in 1995.
Auger-Aliassime, ranked No. 5 in the world, saw his record this season fall to 19-10 as he was eliminated in the second round at a second straight tournament.
The Canadian star will look to regroup at Roland Garros, where he has been eliminated in the first round in two of his last three appearances.
The Montreal Canadiens’ 3-2 overtime win on Monday against the Buffalo Sabres literally made the Earth move.
Might seem smalltime to LA residents, but Natural Resources Canada seismographs registered tremors of 0.5 on on the Richter scale during both the May 16 at-home NHL playoff in the Canadian metropolis and similar shakes during the away game on May 18. According to sensors at Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf and McQuill University, the multiple small earthquakes and seismic activity occurred during primetime ET goals scored by the Original Six team in their Stanley Cup second round down-to-the-wire battle with the formidable Sabres.
Both institutions are fairly close to the Canadiens’ Bell Centre home in downtown Montreal. The legendary arena had 21,000 fans inside and 20,000 fans outside on both nights — and they weren’t sitting on their hands, if you know what I mean?
In moves familiar to Los Angeles residents, Habs supporters commonly riot if their team wins or loses. Like the City of Angels, Montreal sits on a significant fault line. In the case of the ancient city (by North American standards), it is the Western Quebec Seismic Zone.
And it can shake and stir.
Last night, even with the Canadiens winning Game 7 in the 3-3 tied series over the border in Buffalo, seasoned Montreal cops were deployed in force around the Bell Centre and other watch parties.
The first two goals by Montreal saw a huge reaction by hometown hockey fans with strong seismic reactions. When Canadiens forward Alex Newhook scored the winning goal less than 10 minutes into OT, the célébration by the thousands of fans caused those sensitive sensors to peak again.
After the game ended, riot police moved in to contain some trash can tossing and fireworks setting fans and chemical gas was unleashed. The Montreal Gazette’s Harry North was on the streets when the celebration (and police reaction) of the Canadiens to the Eastern Conference finals went down.
Heading into the next round against the Carolina Hurricanes with Game 1 on May 21 in Raleigh, NC, the Canadiens are far from the only team to cause a quake or two.
The 60,400-strong fan jamboree in the May 2025 Premier League title win by Liverpool over Tottenham Hotspurs generated at 1.74 reading when Alexis Mac Allister put The Reds ahead 2-1. Of course, as many a metal and pop fan can tell you, that’s weak sauce. Very weak compared to the 2.3 seismic activity Taylor Swift devotees created in at the ‘Shake It Off’ star’s Seattle shows on July 2023 her Eras tour stop. That could be Emerald City fans — as several Seahawks games have registered such shakes as well.
BTW – the only team from the Great North still in this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs, the Canadiens have not won the iconic trophy since 1993. The best of seven games Eastern Conference series will be shown on TNT and truTV.
BUFFALO --Jakub Dobes is grateful to the fans of Buffalo.
For mocking him.
And if the rowdy fans of the Carolina Hurricanes known as the Caniacs want to verbally berate him in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final at Lenovo Center on Thursday (8 p.m. ET: HBO MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC), the Montreal Canadiens goalie says bring it on.
Because he embraces every single derogatory word.
“Their fans like to chant my name, so I like that,” the 24-year-old said of the Sabres fans at KeyBank Center after Montreal’s 3-2 overtime victory in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Second Round on Monday.
“Thank you. Thanks for that,” Dobes said. “Actually, that was giving me fire because I like when you're the villain (and) you’re in this situation.”
The colorful Dobes is many things. A villain. A “goofy goalie,” as he referred to himself after Montreal’s 6-2 victory in Game 3. An emotional competitor who’s shed his share of tears behind his mask in these 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, both from adulation and frustration.
The one thing he’s not is boring.
And when the chips were down, when his team needed him the most, the rookie goalie was at his best in Game 7, stopping 37 Sabres shots before Alex Newhook scored the series winner at 11:22 of overtime.
This after he was almost pulled after allowing three goals on the first four shots he faced in Game 5. The decision by interim goalie coach Marco Marciano to keep him in ultimately proved to be the correct one when he stopped the remaining 32 shots he faced in Montreal’s 6-3 win.
He did get the hook in Game 6 after allowing six goals on 33 shots, part of Buffalo’s 8-3 victory at Bell Centre. In the process, there was plenty of speculation of how Dobes, who’d only had the No. 1 job since mid-January, would react to the pressure of a Game 7 after his game seemed to be developing some deep cracks.
In the end, his way of dealing with it was pure Dobes through and through.
“I was playing video games with the guys after Game 6,” he explained with a chuckle.
Then he went out in Game 7 and was a stud, making a couple of snow-angel stops that were reminiscent of Dominik Hasek, his fellow countryman from Czechia who regularly performed similar theatrics for the Sabres in this same building decades earlier.
It’s another example of the resiliency shown by Dobes, who had to bounce back after he allowed a game-changing goal in Game 4 on a neutral zone dump-in from Sabres forward Tage Thompson that ricocheted off a stanchion on the Zamboni door in the corner at Bell Centre and deflected off him into the net.
He’s a very motivated kid, if nothing else, seemingly fueled by adversity.
“I think me getting pulled at home was kind of a wakeup call,” he said of Game 6. “I took it personal.”
And then he took it out on the Sabres in Game 7.
Now he’ll face a Carolina team that likes to put as many pucks to the net as they can and create chaos around the crease, the type of system that can easily toy with the emotions of the combustible Dobes.
“Look, we know how to bounce back,” he said. “We just keep getting experience. And I think that every round, every game, every experience makes us a better team for the playoffs and for the future because we are a really young group and we are learning a lot.”
He certainly seems to be. In fact, Dobes became just the second goalie in NHL history, behind late Canadiens Hall of Famer Ken Dryden, to win multiple road Game 7s in a single playoff year, having previously played in Montreal’s 2-1 win at the Tampa Bay Lighting in the first round.
And if you think the grind of playing each and every one of Montreal’s 14 playoff games thus far is wearing on him, he rejected that notion during an on-ice interview with Sportsnet after the post-series handshake line between the Sabres and Canadiens had been completed.
“Me? Oh, I can play 40 more,” he said matter of factly.
“Really?” Sportsnet’s Kyle Bukauskas replied, almost as if he’d been caught off guard by Dobes’ response.
After seeing the roller-coaster ride he’s been on the past month, only to always find a way to somehow, someway, come out on top, this much is certain: With Dobes, anything, the good and the bad, is possible.
It shouldn’t take long for the Hurricanes to discover that for themselves.
