Photo : Sarah-Jade Champagne
After making a pit stop in Toronto last week, the ITF World Tennis Tour has moved east this week to New Brunswick and Quebec where another $25,000 women’s event will be played in Fredericton and a $25,000 men’s tournament will be played in Montreal at IGA Stadium.
After Katherine Sebov was crowned champion in Toronto, this week’s Canadian contingent will be looking to follow in her footsteps and win a title on home soil.
In Fredericton, Stacey Fung leads the way for the host nation. The 26-year-old Vancouver native won a $25,000 event in Santo Domingo at the end of February after taking home four ITF trophies in 2022. This week will also mark the return of Victoria Mboko who will be playing her first tournament since reaching the semifinals at the U.S. Open Junior Championships last September. The top seed in Fredericton is American Kayla Day, ranked no. 186 in the world. She is a former junior World No. 1 and in 2016, she was crowned champion of the Junior U.S. Open and also reached the semifinals of Junior Wimbledon.
Singles and doubles main draw action gets underway Tuesday in Fredericton.
Meanwhile, in Montreal, Canadians Juan Carlos Aguilar, Duncan Chan, Keegan Rice, Benjamin Sigouin, and Marko Stakusic have all earned direct entry into the main draw. The no. 1 seed at the top of the draw is Germany’s Henri Squire, ranked no. 325 in the world, who already has one ITF singles title to his name in 2023 after winning the $25,000 tournament in Bath, Great Britain last month. The second seed at the bottom of the draw is American Strong Kirchheimer.
Singles qualifying wraps up Tuesday at IGA Stadium and doubles play also gets underway. The top seeds in singles will take to the court for the first time on Wednesday.