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WILSON/MAYFAIR ITF SENIORS RESULTS

The first Senior ITF tournament of 2015 was the Wilson Mayfair tournament held Jan 2 to 4 a great way for people to deliver on any new year resolutions to get fitter or to play more tennis!

The winners and finalists were as follows:-

MS35 Anthony Perkins (GB) Giovanni Schiavo

MD35 Jason Lee & Omer Rashid, Jason Christie & Robert Husain

MS 40 Omer Rashid, Jason Christie

MS 45  Karl Hale, Mike O’Neill

MD 45 Martin Lemay & Mike O’Neill, Chris Healing & Fraser Macdonald

MS 50 Gary Meanchos, Dariusz Kozak

MS 55 Mike Rose (USA), Marc Pepin

MD 55 Fraser Macdonald & Marc Pepin, Sergey Borodulin & Rosti Brankovsky

MS 60 Toby Crabel (USA), Sergey Borodulin

MS 65 Terry Redvers, John Payne

MD 65 Brian Fung & William Paden, Adrian Met & Edward Twardus

WS 35  Nadia Petryshyn, Caroline Cote

WD 35 Jennifer Bishop & Tina Blaskovic, Lianne Marr & Kanta Murali

WS 40 Jennifer Bishop, Paula Sousa

WS 45 Janet Bulger, Caroline Frenette

WD 45 Kelly Stobbe & Janet Bulger, Marie Josee Pachl & Cathy Litton (see photo right to left)

WS 50 Cathy Litton, Jennifer Knelman

WS 55 Susanna Sekely, Janice Hebert

WD 55 Susanna Sekely & Janice Hebert, Liliane Clune & Charlotte Deheinrich

WS 60 Susan Bye, Peggy Stoddart

The next Wilson Mayfair Senior ITF tournament will be held  Feb 13 to 16.  Singles age categories 35 to 65 (5 year increments). Doubles for categories ending in “5” with sign up on site. Singles entries close Jan 28^th.

Don’t forget these other dates for your calendar!

Mar 18-22 Eastern Indoor Nationals - Senior Men (35 to 55), Donalda Club, and Senior Women (all ages) Toronto Lawn.

Apr 1-5 Western Indoor Nationals , Victoria, British Columbia.

Apr 8-12 Eastern Indoors Nationals Super Senior Men (60 and up), Cote de Liesse, Montreal

Aug 16 -22 Steve Stevens Senior Outdoor Nationals, Mount Royal & Cote St. Luc Tennis Clubs, Montreal. 

WATCHING TENNIS AT THE TENNIS HALL OF FAME

by Simon Rosenblum

A professional grass court tennis tournament in North America? I suspect that many Ontario Tennis readers do not know that an ATP [250 level] event has been held every year since 1977 in Newport, Rhode Island the week following Wimbledon. It is called the Hall of Fame tournament because it is played in the International Tennis Hall of Fame complex.Why watch more grass court tennis right after Wimbledon? There are quite a few good reasons to do so.

First and foremost is that you get to see it live.Not only live but up close and personal as this is a small venue providing fantastic sight lines in even the most inexpensive seats.This leads right in to the next - and best - reason: the grass courts in Newport are soft. They are very different from Wimbledon grass courts which increasingly resemble hard courts. Consequently,the ball bounces very low in Newport which makes serve and volley tennis a good play as the returner has greater difficulty executing a good passing shot.Drop shots are also enhanced since the ball can sink like a pancake. Put it all together and you get tennis played like you may have not seen before. I know it was an eye opener for me and I have been to Wimbledon.

So who plays at the Hall of Fame tournament? As it is a 250 level event you are not going to see all the top players that we now get at the Rogers Cup. But a handful of the top fifty ranked players are there and these included big names like John Isner and this year's champion Leyton Hewitt. Oops,I forgot to mention our own Daniel Nestor who played doubles.The rest of the players had rankings around 100 and many of them may be familiar to you from television coverage of the early rounds at the slams. So not too shabby at all.

Then there is the International Tennis Hall of Fame itself with great exhibits and a rare Court Tennis - the medieval game that gave rise to lawn tennis as we now know it - facility. All in all,a must for the dedicated tennis fan. And yes, you can actually pay to play yourself on one of their 13 grass courts. Well it would be better if you had a partner !

So what is stopping you? Travel? Newport is easily accessible: only a little more than an hour drive from Boston or three hours from New York City. You can even make it in a day from Toronto. Once you get there you will be well looked after. Newport's accommodations are fantastic with lots of charming Bed and Breakfasts at reasonable prices and within easy walking distance of the tennis.The city itself is lovely with lots to do and see when you are not enjoying the tennis.There are no night sessions. 

Newport is a famous boating venue and -for those of you without a yacht - there are its Historic Mansions built in the early 20th century by the richest 1% of the 1%.Remember the Great Gatsby? Well these are the very same mansions that gave the gilded age such a "good" name. And for a small sum you can visit them and make yourself at home. Like seafood? I left a few scallops and a lobster in a few Newport restaurants with your name on them. Bon appetit!

You may never want to leave. But you will have to because the Rogers Cup will be less than a month away.

Simon Rosenblum,a retired public policy analyst,writes the occasional article for Ontario Tennis and is an active tennis hacker.

BUSY TENNIS TIME AT REXALL CENTRE

The OTA hosted several tournaments at the Rexall Centre over the holidays and into January. More than 200 competitors took part in tournaments of all ages and categories including Men’s and Women’s 5.0, Men’s 4.0, 3.0, U12 – U16 Transition Tour and the National Selection  & Feedup events for U12 to U18.

OTA staff also geared up to take lots of photos and post them for your enjoyment on the Ontario Tennis Association Facebook Page! Here are some selected photos and results.

OTA -REXALL Transition Tour photo shows U12 doubles champs. & finalists: Zachary Willson, Maxwell Roy, Nicolas Petrea & Alexander Matros showing off their Cineplex gift cards.

Others champs and finalists were U12 singles boys - champ Maxim Tokarev, finalist, Maxwell Roy. Girls champ Theodora Jucan, finalist Priya Suresh Raj. 

U14 singles boys champ Boris Lamberski, finalist, Charles Refausse. Boys doubles champs Boris Lamberski & Aaron Blake, finalists Cameron Lightly & Maxwell Roy. Girls singles champ Lauryn Son, finalist Chantelle Biglow. 

U 16 boys singles champ Tyler Panhuyzen, finalist Henry Schekhtman. Girls singles champ Elizabeth Eve Rozin, finalist Lauryn Son. Girls doubles champs, Chantelle Biglow & Lauryn Son, finalists Crystal Biglow & Elizabeth Eve Rozin.

OTA Rexall Men's 4.0 Champion: Yang Yu with finalist Jake Schutz showing off their Nike gift cards; Yang defeated Jake in three tough sets after saving two match points!

Men’s 5.0 champ was Giovanni Schiavo, finalist Robert Beer. Women’s 5.0 champ was Lidia Grigorian, finalist Christina Lau. Men’s 3.0 champ was Alexandru Costea, finalist Srivathsan Seshadri.

GU16 Feed up champ: Jada Bui with the OTA's Samantha Pagnotta. Finalist was Rhea Verma

GU12 winner Victoria Mboko, finalist Vera Kozlova. GU14 winner Yochana Benchelrit, finalist Jessica Alsola. GU18 winner Tiara Higuchi, finalist Mya Bui.

U18 Selection #1 Boys Doubles Champs: Clarke Wilson & Christian Lakoseljac and the Finalists: Eli Ogilvy & Sean Huynh; lots of tennis played in one day: Christian - 7 sets, Sean - 6 sets, Eli - 5 sets...great work guys!

U18 boys singles won by Christian, Sean was finalist amd Eli and Brett Stinson were semi-finalists. Teona Velehorschi won the Girls singles, Sofija Zecevic the finalist. Girls doubles was won by Anna Philp & Alexandra Tutecky, Anca Craciun & Teona Velehorschi were finalists.

For complete results of these and all sanctioned events visit www.tennisontario.com / Player Development. 

ONTARIO PLAYERS TAKE THE ORANGES

Each year lots of Ontario Juniors spend early December in Florida at some of the most prestigious tournaments in the world. 

The first tournament is the Eddie Herr International Junior Tournaments, which is held at the IMG Academy in Bradenton. Three young players from Ontario reached the quarter-finals. Ilya Tirapolsky (boys’ under-12), William Tutecky (boys’ under-16), and Katarina Kopcalic (girls’ under-16) however none of these players were able to advance futher.

However, when it came to the Orange Bowl, Ontario players were able to come home with Tiffany orange bowls again!  In the under 16s Bianca Andreescu (see photo) captured the esteemed singles title. Katarina Kopcalic reached the quarters and the Ontario duo were paired and reached the semi-finals in doubles.

On the boys side, Christian Lakoseljac (see photo left) won the doubles championship under 16 with partner Basil Khuma of India. Jack Mingjie Lin, partnered by Benjamin Segouin, reached the U16 doubles semi-final.

It looked as though 15 year-old Katherine Sebov might make it all the way in the under 18 draw, but she was stopped in the quarters. Other notable results in the Orange Bowl were delivered by Victor Krustev, who reached the quarters in U16 singles, and Alejandro Tabilo who reached the quarters in U18 doubles.

It looked like one Orange Bowl title wasn’t going to satisfy Bianca Vanessa Andreescu when she played in the Junior Orange Bowl the following week. She came just one win short of becoming the first girl to win both the U16 Orange Bowl and U14 Junior Orange Bowl singles titles in the same year after she lost to Russian Anastasia Potapova 6-4, 6-3 in the U14 final. After taking out both the the No. 1 and No. 4 seeds, Andreescu, who was seeded #5, had her amazing streak halted by Potapova, who had won the U14 Eddie Herr title and was the #2 seed in the event.

Andreescu, is part of Tennis Canada’s national junior training program in Toronto. She was the fourth straight Canadian to win the U16 girls’ title after Erin Routliffe of Ontario (2011), Gloria Liang of Ontario (2012), and Charlotte Robillard-Millette of Quebec (2013).