Junior Update by Har-Tru: Busy Summer on Home Soil Continues

The action never seems to slow down on the ITF Junior Tour in Canada.  

Four weeks have passed since we last caught up with the juniors and four more events have taken place on Canadian soil. While it’s been a bit up and down, the hosts have largely acquitted themselves well, getting at least one hand on 11 of the 16 trophies up for grabs.

Here is the monthly junior tennis update by Har-Tru.

J30 Ottawa

Ironically, the event in the nation’s capital, the Ottawa Manitock ITF J30 World Tennis Tour, was the one where the Canadians struggled the most.

Only one of the four trophies ended up in Canadian hands, with Zackary Kimelman and Luke Laughlin winning the boys doubles title over fellow Canadian Andy Tchinda Kepche and his German partner Max Geissinger. Kimelman and Laughlin dropped just one set, the second set of the final, on their way to the title.

Read also: Canadian Chan wins doubles title in Laval; Boulais falls short in singles final

The hosts had good shots at both girls crowns, but Jacey Tian was beaten in the singles final by Dongchen Ding of China and the all-Canadian pair of Gabriella Chase and Ananya Chaturvedi were beaten by Ding and Ukraine’s Mariia Shybanova in the girls doubles final.

J30 Niagara-on-the-Lake

The following week at the Bruno Agostinelli ITF Junior Championship in Niagara-on-the-Lake, the hosts picked up their game, claiming two of the titles outright and sharing another.

Lily Rochon picked up the first singles win over this stretch of events by a Canadian by defeating American qualifier Sylvana Jalbert in three sets in the final. She then nearly doubled up in Southern Ontario by reaching the girls doubles final with Tessa Puente, but they lost an all-Canadian final to Sophie Dement and Payton Dith.

On the boys side, Tchinda Kepche bounced back from his finals loss in Ottawa, claiming the doubles title with Geissinger, who also won the boys singles, without dropping a set. They beat the all-Canadian pair of Joachim Marx and Filip Vujicic in the final.

J30 Winnipeg

Winnipeg was the best event over the last month for the Canadians. The hosts won all four titles outright.

Read also: ATP Challenger Tour heads to Winnipeg for second Canadian pro event of July

Puente was the biggest star. The 14-year-old from Toronto won both the girls singles and doubles titles. She lost just one set in singles, in the semis against top seed Amy Lu, on her way to that title. In doubles, she and Elisabeth Djabourian cruised into the final where they battled past Dith and Melissa Wang in an all-Canadian final.  

On the boys side, Alden Yu claimed the singles title while top seeds Marc-Edouard Lallier, who lost to Yu in the singles final, and Callum Mackinnon claimed the doubles trophy.  

Canadians accounted for all but one spot in a final in Winnipeg. Puente beat Ukraine’s Shybanova in the girls singles final.

J30 Kamloops

Kamloops was a little more challenging for the Canadians, but they got their hands on three of the trophies at the J30 Jarl Andreas Whist, Leede Financial Inc. event.

Read also: Shapovalov Excited to Come Back Home to Toronto for National Bank Open

Tchinda Kepche managed to score his second title over the last month, winning the boys singles event to go along with his doubles win in Niagara-on-the-Lake. He only dropped one set, that coming in the all-Canadian final against Rafael Bote.

Bote was going for the double in Kamloops, as he won the boys doubles with American Daniel Malacek. They hung on in a thrilling final which ended 12-10 in the match tiebreak.

Sophia Montemurro was also a Canadian winner at the event, claiming the girls doubles with Yelyzaveta Dovhopol of Ukraine. The third seeds needed back-to-back match tiebreaks in the semis and final to claim the title. Dovhopol denied the host nation of the girls singles title, claiming that trophy despite being the only non-Canadian to reach the quarter-finals.

Here is the full list of winners from the Canadian ITF junior events over the last month. All winners are Canadian unless otherwise indicated:  

This week, junior action stays in British Columbia with a J100 event in Vancouver. The Fischer Outdoor Junior Nationals will get underway at the end of July.

Results Abroad

Just like Roland-Garros a month ago, Canadian’s No. 1 junior Nadia Lagaev was the lone Canuck in the junior draws at Wimbledon this past week.

Photo : Martin Sidorjak

The 17-year-old was beaten in the first round of both singles and doubles. The draw was not kind to Lagaev as she had to play seeds in both events. In singles, she lost to No. 12 Alena Kovackova while in doubles, she went out in a match tiebreak alongside Nauhany Vitoria Leme Da Silva of Brazil to eighth seeds Kristina Penickova and Vendula Valdmannova.  

Read also: Short Stay at the All-England Club

Here is the full list of Canadians who reached finals at events outside of Canada over the last month (Titles in bold)  

• Benjamin Azar: J100 Verbier boys doubles champion, J100 Bruchkoebel boys singles runner-up
• Joshua Adamson: J60 Timisoara boys singles champion, J100 Timisoara boys singles runner-up, J100 Timisoara boys doubles runner-up (w/ Colburne)
• Caden Colburne: J100 Timisoara boys doubles runner-up (w/ Adamson)
• Eve Thibault: J60 Orlando girls doubles runner-up

Rankings Update

Even with her early losses at the All-England Club, Lagaev remains the nation’s No. 1 junior at No. 39 in the ITF girls rankings. She is just nine spots back of her career-high of No. 30.  

Volodymyr Gurenko is the only other Canadian in the Top 100, having just hit his new career-high of No. 94 in the ITF boys rankings.  

Check out the full ITF junior rankings here.

Feature Photo : David Kirouac