TOURNAMENT OF GRAND CHAMPIONS

The Tournament of Grand Champions, a series of “Tournament of Club Champions” events were held at the beautiful new University of Toronto,  Scarborough College Tennis Facility, which was upgraded for the Parapan Am Games.  Winners and Finalists of Club Championships for 2014 and 2015 from clubs across Ontario were invited to participate in singles, doubles and mixed doubles events spread over 3 weekends in September and October. All players were guaranteed 3 matches over the weekend.

The first event was for singles players. The women’s singles A was won by Leanne James of the Granite Club who beat Vienne Lu of Kew Gardens in the final. The women’s singles B was won by Renee James of the Cutten Club who beat Anne Hurtibise of Kew Gardens in the final.

Leighton Brandon of Kew  was crowned champion in the Junior Boys singles with his win over Tim Zeikowvsky of Newmarket. The men’s singles A winner was Justin Belanger of Davisville who defeated Luke Coles of Mayfair Lakeshore in the final. Andrew Falco of Heron Park took the men’s B honours with a win over Kew Gardens member, Justin David.

The men’s and women’s doubles events were held the last weekend in September. The women’s C title was won by Diane Howarth & Annette Brajer of Pine Point who defeated Natasha Stojanova & Alexsanda Stojanova in their final. The women’s B was won by Rhonda Kazdan & Lauren Tabatznik of Mayfair West who beat Mary Ruehlicke & Lisa Hoffman of Waterloo in their final. The women’s A final was won by Jacqueline Green & Sandra Barrett of Mayfair Lakeshore who defeated Mary Hall & Pat Hall of Curran Hall. The men’s A champions were Konrad Chan & Ilias Mourador of Henry Farms who defeated Brian Li & Bobby Gheorghiu of Thorncliffe Park in the final. Mandeep Singh & Arul Raj of Malton took home the B honours with a win over Wayne Ivey & Rhuel Maano of North York in their final.

October 3 and 4 saw the mixed doubles events on the courts. The mixed A champions are Paul Scotti & Christina Rustscheff  of Davisville, while Kanta Murali & Paul Kingston of Mayfair Lakeshore were the finalists (see photo from right to left). The mixed B honours went to Stephanie Wong & Tyson Wong of Agincourt who beat Mary Ruehlicke & Peter Gavaris of Waterloo in the final.

Special thanks go to Scott McRoberts of the U of T Scarborough College Tennis Centre who made this possible and to Tennis Access's Sandra Barrett and her team of volunteers for their unflagging energy and enthusiasm in getting this event off the ground.