The University of Toronto Varsity Blues stand alone in the OUA after winning both the men’s and women’s tennis conference championships in October.
It is the 38th outright victory (years where the title was shared excluded) for the women since 1927 and the 31st for the men since 1909. It is the second time in the last three years that U of T won both titles in the same year. Their 2023 double was the first time the Varsity Blues managed the feat in the 20th century.
Here is the monthly university tennis update.
The conference championships were held from Oct. 10 to 12 at the Mayfair Toronto East club in Markham, ON. The U of T women, the defending conference champions, were particularly dominant in their run to the title, only losing two matches in the entire event.
They kicked off their run with a clean sweep of the University of Ottawa in the quarter-finals, winning 7-0 without dropping a set. In the semis, they won the Toronto Derby 6-1 over York. The Varsity Blues then completed their title defence with a 6-1 win over Queen's.
U of T has won five of the last six women’s titles, including three in a row.
The U of T men’s squad had a tougher time but still managed to get their hands on the trophy. They took down Brock 5-2 in the quarter-finals before besting Queen’s 6-1 in the semis.
In the final, they were up against Ottawa, who had upset the top seeds and defending champions Western 4-3 in the semis. The final was tight, but the Varsity Blues secured four of the six singles matches, Ottawa took the doubles, to edge out the GeeGees 4-3 to reclaim the title.
Photo : University of Toronto Varsity Blues
Western had won five of the last six men’s conference championships, with U of T breaking up their run briefly with a title in 2023.
NCAA
The fall part of the NCAA calendar consists primarily of tournaments before the regular team season kicks off in January.
A number of Canadians were among the winners at the various regional championships over the first month of the season.
Photo : UVA Women's Tennis
Annabelle Xu of the University of Virginia was the biggest winner, getting her hands on both the singles and doubles trophies. She actually co-won the singles with fellow UVA player Vivian Yang. The pair agreed to forgo the singles final and be named co-champions.
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In doubles, Xu and partner Martina Genis Salas defeated the Maryland team of Emma Ghiradato and Ema Kovacevi in straight sets for the title.
Keegan Rice, also of the University of Virginia, claimed the men’s singles title in the Atlantic region with back-to-back comeback wins in the semis and final. He also reached the doubles final with Jangjun Kim, but they lost to the top seeds, also from Virginia.
Photo : UVA Men's Tennis
Mia Kupres added another trophy to her case, picking up the women’s singles title in the Texas Region. Kupres was a key member of the Texas A&M squad that won the national team championship in 2024.
Orly Ogilvy of Yale scored the women’s doubles title in the New England region alongside partner Leena Friendman.
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Naomi Xu of the University of California got to the women’s singles final in the Northwest region but was beaten in straight sets.
Another big event was the All-American Championships, which took place at the end of September. Canadian Teah Chavez of Ohio State University put on a good show, reaching the women’s singles semifinals without dropping a set. There, she lost to the eventual champion Valerie Glozman of Stanford.
On the men’s side, Duncan Chan of TCU had the best singles showing by a Canadian, reaching the third round where he lost to top seed Dhakshineswar Suresh of Wake Forest in three sets.
Click here to view all the Canadian rankings in the NCAA.
Feature Photo : University of Toronto Varsity Blues
