It’s Fischer Junior Nationals season again as the 2026 U16 and U12 Indoors got underway on Friday.
The U16 event, held at the Club de tennis Île des Sœurs in Verdun, QC, has gotten off to a surprise start on the boys side. Singles top-seed Deniz Karabulut of Ontario was stunned in his opening match against Tommy Penev, with the Quebecker sealing the upset in a third-set tiebreaker.
Two was the magic number at the 2025 championships as the No. 2 seeds in both boys singles and doubles took home the titles. This year, Antoine Tardif is the singles second-seed. The Quebecker will be looking to return to the Fischer Nationals winner’s circle, hoisting the singles trophy at the U14 Outdoors in 2024.
The doubles No. 2 seeds are Ilya Sherifali of Ontario and Alden S.K Yu of British Columbia, sitting behind the top-seeded team of Callum Mackinnon and Marc-Édouard L’Allier. Mackinnon was a finalist in both singles and doubles at the U16 Outdoors last year.
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The girls side is led by Quebeckers Romy Gravenor and Éve Thibault. Gravenor comes in as the top seed in singles while Thibault is the second, but the two join forces to make up the No. 1 seeds in doubles.
Elisabeth Djabourian and Catherine Xie are the No. 2 seeds, with the former arriving in Verdun with a bit of winning touch of late. Djabourian nabbed two doubles titles at a pair of ITF J30 events in Mexico, but the Quebecker has yet to get her hands on Fischer Nationals silverware, finishing as runner-up at the U14 Indoors and Outdoors in 2025.
U12
The U12s began play in the Prairies for the 2026 Fischer Indoor Junior Nationals at the Osten & Victor Alberta Tennis Centre in Calgary, AB.
Last year’s singles top-seed Daniel Marinov leads the field heading into the qualifying round-robin. The Ontarian was a finalist in 2025 and has conceded just four games in his first two matches of this year’s event.
The girls singles No. 1 seed is Yoyo Siyi Li of Saskatchewan, a U14 Prairie Region Indoor titlist in February. Li has also been dominant in her opening two matches, dropping only two games.
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Both the boys and girls singles fields are split into six groups of six, with the top two in each advancing to the 1-12 place draw. Those winners battle for 1-6 and the U12 Indoor Nationals title.
Feature Photo: André Noël
