|Photo: Nina Henry
Brayden Schnur (Pickering, ON) and Katherine Sebov (Toronto, ON) were beaten in their respective finals in Winnipeg and Saskatoon on Sunday. The men were competing on the courts of the Winnipeg Lawn Tennis Club at the Winnipeg National Bank Challenger which offers $54,160 in total prize money. The women’s ITF tournament, which offers $25,000 in total prize money, was played at the Riverside Badminton and Tennis Club in Saskatoon.
Third-seeded Schnur was denied a first ATP Challenger title as he lost 7-6(3), 6-3 to Norbert Gombos (No. 6). Schnur was the second Canadian to suffer defeat to Gombos in singles action following the Slovak’s 7-6(3), 6-3 victory over Benjamin Sigouin in the first round.
Gombos lost just one set throughout the entire tournament, that coming against Australian Andrew Harris (No. 12) in the second round. The 28-year-old soundly beat China’s Zhe Li (No. 13) 6-4, 6-2 in the quarter-finals before seeing off the challenge of Hiroki Moriya (No. 15) of Japan 6-4, 6-2 in the semi-finals.
Gombos’ singles title victory comes a day after the doubles main draw came to an end. Peter Polansky (Toronto, ON) and Darian King of Barbados (No. 4) defeated fellow Canadian Adil Shamasdin (Toronto, ON) and Hunter Reese (No. 1) 7-6(8), 6-3 in the final.
In the singles final in Saskatoon, Sebov (No. 1) came up just short against Maddison Inglis (No. 2), losing 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 to the Australian. Inglis’s run to the final began with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Hsu Chieh-yu of Taiwan, followed by a second round 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-1 victory over Dasha Ivanova of the United States.
In the quarter-final, Inglis cruised past Canadian Carol Zhao thanks to a convincing 6-1, 6-1 win before facing her first seeded opponent of the tournament, Haruka Kaji (No. 8), in the semi-finals. There, despite losing the first set, the 21-year-old produced a 3-6, 7-6(7), 6-2 victory to reach the final.
The doubles main draw, which came to a close on Saturday, saw Chieh-Yu Hsu and Marcela Zacarias (No. 2) defeat Haruka Kaji and Momoko Kobori (No. 1) 6-3, 6-2 to claim the title.
(Feature photo: David Mahussier)
