Françoise Abanda


Françoise Abanda is a Canadian professional tennis player. She reached her highest WTA singles ranking of 111 on October 9, 2017 and her highest WTA doubles ranking of 197 on September 8, 2014. She achieved a career high junior rank of No. 4 on April 29, 2013.

Early life

Françoise started playing tennis at age 7, after her elder-by-three-years sister Élisabeth started playing two years earlier. She has been a member of Tennis Canada's National Training Centre in Montreal since 2009. Her parents, Blaise Abanda and Cecile Essono Ahibena, are from Cameroon. Her sister Élisabeth also played tennis professionally and studied at Barry University.

Tennis career

2011–12

In 2011, Abanda reached the third round of the junior US Open in singles. In May 2012, she was eliminated in the third round of the junior French Open in singles, and in the quarterfinals in doubles. She lost in the semifinals of the junior Wimbledon in June 2012 in both singles and doubles. She played and won her first professional match at the $25,000 ITF in Granby in July, defeating world No. 331 Jennifer Elie in the first round before losing to compatriot Eugenie Bouchard in the second. She also reached the doubles semifinals. In August, she reached last round qualies at the Rogers Cup as a wildcard, with a win over world No. 104 Irina Falconi in the second round.
Abanda then won in September the G1 tournament in Repentigny, becoming only the second Québécoise, and fourth Canadian to win the title there. She made it to the quarterfinals of the junior US Open in doubles at the beginning of September. Also in 2012, she won the GB1 Pan American Closed ITF Championships, with a win over fellow Canadian Carol Zhao in the final. In October 2012, Abanda reached the doubles semifinals at the $50,000 ITF in Saguenay. She reached a week later her second straight doubles semifinals, this time at the $50,000 ITF Challenger in Toronto.

2013

Abanda made a first return following her shoulder's injury at an ITF in March but lost in the first round. She made a second return in August at the US Open and reached the second round of the junior event. The next week, she was awarded a wildcard in the doubles main draw at the Challenge Bell. This was the first WTA main draw of her career, but lost to Alla Kudryavtseva and Anastasia Rodionova in the quarterfinals.
During the first two weeks of October, Abanda played two back-to-back ITFs in Mexico. In the first, a $15,000 ITF held in Victoria, Abanda reached the quarterfinals in singles and the semifinals in doubles, with Victoria Rodríguez. The second tournament, a $25,000 ITF held in Tampico, saw Abanda beat Ana Sofía Sánchez in straight sets in the first round but ultimately lost in the second round. In doubles, she reached the quarterfinals partnering with Indy de Vroome. As a result, she broke the top 400 in doubles for the first time, at world number 397.
In mid-October, Abanda made it to the quarterfinals in singles at the 25K in Rock Hill. At the end of October, Abanda reached her first professional doubles final at the ITF $50,000 in Saguenay, but was defeated by Marta Domachowska and Andrea Hlaváčková. She also made it to the quarterfinals in singles. A week later at the 50K in Toronto, Abanda won her first professional title with a win over Melanie Oudin and Jessica Pegula. At the beginning of December and the last tournament of her season, Abanda reached the quarterfinals at the ITF 25K in Mérida.

2014

In mid-January, Abanda won her first professional singles title with a victory over compatriot Heidi El Tabakh at the ITF $25,000 in Port St. Lucie. In February, she qualified for the ITF 100K in Midland, but was defeated by Sofia Arvidsson in the second round. In March, Abanda made it to the last round of qualifying at the WTA Premier Mandatory Sony Open Tennis, where she was awarded a wildcard, before losing in three sets to Kimiko Date-Krumm. She also reached in April the last round of qualifying at the WTA event in Bogotá. In late April, Abanda made it through to the quarterfinals of the ITF 50K in Charlottesville as a qualifier, but was eliminated by Montserrat González in three sets. In May at the Internationaux de Strasbourg, she reached her second WTA quarterfinal in doubles, but was eliminated by third seeds Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan. In the last week of May, Abanda made it to the semifinals of the ITF 25K in Maribor where she was eliminated by Yvonne Neuwirth.
At the beginning of June at the French Open, Abanda reached her second junior Grand Slam semifinal, but was defeated by the number one seed Ivana Jorović. At Wimbledon a month later, she was eliminated by Markéta Vondroušová in the third round. In July at the inaugural ITF 25K in Gatineau, Abanda made it to her second professional singles final where she was eliminated by Stéphanie Foretz in three sets. The next week, she reached the semifinals of the ITF 25K in Granby. At the Citi Open at the end of July, Abanda was awarded a wildcard for the main draw but was defeated by Vania King in the first round. In August, Abanda was awarded a wildcard for the Rogers Cup main draw in her hometown of Montreal but lost in three sets to world No. 12 Dominika Cibulková. At the US Open in late August, she qualified for her first Grand Slam after losing only six games in the three rounds. She lost to world No. 27 Sabine Lisicki in the first round. In September at the Coupe Banque Nationale, she was awarded a wildcard for the main draw where she was defeated by world No. 19 and childhood idol Venus Williams.

2015–16

In February 2015, Abanda was selected for the first time to represent Canada at the Fed Cup. She lost her two matches of the World Group first round tie against the defending champion the Czech Republic. A week later, she reached the semifinals of the ITF 25K in Surprise. In March 2015, she was awarded a wildcard for the Miami Open main draw, but was defeated by world No. 51 Kaia Kanepi in the opening round. In April 2015 at the Fed Cup World Group Play-offs, Abanda scored her first win over a Top 100 player when she upset world No. 33 Irina-Camelia Begu in the first match against Romania. She lost her second match in three sets to world No. 69 Alexandra Dulgheru. In May 2015, she won her second professional doubles title after defeating Olga Ianchuk and Irina Khromacheva with partner Maria Sanchez at the ITF $50,000 in Charlottesville. At the Rogers Cup in August 2015, Abanda was awarded a wildcard for the main draw in singles but lost in the opening round to world No. 16 Andrea Petkovic in three sets. She also advanced to the doubles second round with compatriot Heidi El Tabakh.
In March 2016, Abanda won the second singles title of her career after defeating Lesley Kerkhove in straight sets at the ITF 25K in Irapuato. In July 2016, she started working with Canadian tennis coach Alain Humblet and received a wildcard into the Washington Citi Open where she lost to Usue Maitane Arconada in the first round. In August 2016, she advanced to the second round of the WTA Premier 5 Rogers Cup with a win over world No. 66 Zheng Saisai, but was defeated by world No. 20 Elina Svitolina in the next round. In September 2016, she reached the second round of the WTA tournament in Quebec City for the first time. She captured in October 2016 her third singles title with a victory over Sachia Vickery at the Redding ITF 25K.

2017

In April at the Fed Cup World Group II Play-offs against Kazakhstan, Abanda won her two singles matches, respectively over world No. 51 Yaroslava Shvedova and world No. 31 Yulia Putintseva. Canada went on to win the tie 3–2 and secured its place in the World Group II in 2018. In May, Abanda qualified for the French Open for the first time in her career and defeated local Tessah Andrianjafitrimo in the opening round. She lost to world No. 12 Caroline Wozniacki in her next match, without winning a single game. At Wimbledon, she qualified for her second straight Grand Slam main draw and won her first round match over world No. 94 Kurumi Nara. She was defeated by reigning French Open champion and world No. 13 Jeļena Ostapenko in the second round in three sets. In August at the WTA Premier 5 Western & Southern Open, she qualified for the main draw with wins over world No. 79 Misaki Doi and world No. 60 Natalia Vikhlyantseva respectively. In the first round, she defeated her third straight top 100 player, world No. 84 Magda Linette, but was defeated by world No. 37 Julia Görges in her next match. In September at the Coupe Banque Nationale, Abanda reached her first WTA quarterfinal defeating Asia Muhammad and world No. 74 Varvara Lepchenko respectively in the first two rounds, before falling to world No. 63 Tímea Babos.

Performance timeline

Singles

This table is current through the 2019 US Open.

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 5 (3 titles, 2 runner–ups)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScore
Win1–0Jan 2014ITF Port St. Lucie, United States25,000Clay Heidi El Tabakh6–3, 6–4
Loss1–1Jul 2014ITF Gatineau, Canada25,000Hard Stéphanie Foretz3–6, 6–3, 3–6
Win2–1Mar 2016ITF Irapuato, Mexico25,000Hard Lesley Kerkhove6–2, 6–4
Win3–1Oct 2016ITF Redding, United States25,000Hard Sachia Vickery3–6, 6–4, 6–4
Loss3–2Jan 2019ITF Daytona Beach, United States25,000Clay Anna Bondar7–6, 6–7, 5–7

Doubles: 3 (2 titles, 1 runner-up)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScore
Loss0–1Oct 2013ITF Saguenay, Canada50,000Hard Victoria Duval Marta Domachowska
Andrea Hlaváčková		5–7, 3–6
Win1–1Nov 2013ITF Toronto, Canada50,000Hard Victoria Duval Melanie Oudin
Jessica Pegula		7–6, 2–6,
Win2–1May 2015ITF Charlottesville, United States50,000Clay Maria Sanchez Olga Ianchuk
Irina Khromacheva		6–1, 6–3

Record against top-100 players

Abanda's win-loss record against players who were ranked world No. 100 or higher when played is as follows:
Players who have been ranked world No. 1 are in boldface.