Canada’s longest-running Challenger tournament, Les Championnats Banque Nationale de Granby, is the final Canadian professional event of the summer before the National Bank Open gets underway at the end of July.
While the top spot in the Road to NBO is set for the men after Liam Draxl’s title win in Winnipeg, there is still all to play for on the women’s side heading into the final event of the competition.
W75
The top half of the women’s draw includes three of the Top 5 players in the current Road to NBO standings.
The leader, Kayla Cross, comes into Granby as the No. 4 seed and has the potential to face Toronto-native Cadence Brace in the second round, who is 67 points behind Cross in the race for an NBO wildcard. Cross reached the Granby final last year.
Ariana Arseneault, just two points ahead of Brace, is in the same half of the draw as well. The Richmond Hill-native’s opening match is against American qualifier Lilian Poling.
Scarlett Nicholson is also up against an American qualifier in her first-round match. The Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket faces Victoria Hu with the possibility to meet Arseneault in the quarter-finals.
Cross and Arseneault could clash in the semis. Cross would clinch the wildcard into the Montreal WTA 1000 event later this month if she reaches the final. She has a lot of control over her own fate as Brace and Arseneault both need to reach the final to have any chance of stealing top spot in the Road to the NBO but both would have to go through Cross to get there.
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The bottom half has the only all-Canadian match of the first round as Mia Kupres takes on Caral Zhao. Katherine Sebov, who needs a title win and some early exits to secure a Road to NBO wildcard, meets qualifier Haley Giavara of the U.S. in her opening match.
Other than Cross, Brace, and Arseneault, any Canadian hoping to sneak up and win the Road to the NBO would have to win the title to have any chance and even then, they would need an early loss from Cross to have a chance. If Cross reaches the semifinals, every Canadian except Arseneault would be eliminated.
In doubles, the all-Canadian No. 1-seeded team of Arseneault and Kupres, the defending champions in Granby, are already through to the second round. The duo could face a fellow pair of Canucks in Annabelle and Naomi Xu.
Brace and Nicholson were eliminated in the first round by Canadian Alexandra Vagramov and her partner Darja Vidmanova of Czechia.
ATP Challenger
After winning his first title out of six finals this year in Winnipeg, Draxl is looking for Challenger wins in back-to-back weeks in Granby. The 23-year-old could face a Canadian in every round with Alexander Rozin, Alexis Galarneau, Justin Boulais, and Juan Carlos Aguilar all bunched up in the bottom half of the draw.
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Galarneau is the 2023 champion of the tournament but was eliminated in the first round in defence of his title in 2024.
Nicolas Arseneault, brother of Ariana, is the standalone Canuck in the top half of the bracket. The 18-year-old is up against No. 7 seed James Trotter of Japan in his opening match.
The farthest Canadians can meet in the doubles draw is in the semifinal. The duos of Keegan Rice and Rozin as well as the Arseneault brothers are the only two all-Canadian teams in the field.
Draxl is partnering with American Tyler Zink. The pair come in as the No. 2 seeds. Toronto-native Kelsey Stevenson and Australian Omar Jasika have a tough first-round task against No. 1 seeds of Finn Reynolds and James Watt of New Zealand.
Feature Photo: Sarah-Jade Champagne
