ONTARIO PLAYERS REPRESENT CANADA VERY WELL

Pan Am Games

Congratulations to Gabriela Dabrowski of Ottawa who completed the TO2015 Pan Am games with two medals as souvenirs!

Gaby reached the final in both women’s doubles and mixed doubles. On the last day of tennis competition Gaby and partner Carol Zhao of Richmond Hill, who was selected when Sharon Fichman of Toronto was unable to play, took the gold medal in women's doubles.  They beat the team of Mariana Duque Marino of Columbia and Victoria Rodrigues of Mexico in the final 6-1,4-6, 10-5. Interestingly Gaby and Carol had both lost in the quarter final of the women's singles to one of the players they played in the doubles final. Gaby had lost to Duque Marino and Carol to Rodriguez.This medal win is particularly special as it is the first time a Canadian tennis player has won a gold medal in the Pan Am games. Carol (left) and Gaby (right) show off their gold medals with coach Andrea Rabzak. Way to go girls!

Gaby is pictured here with her partner Philip Bester of Vancouver showing off their silver medal. They played the final of the mixed doubles on Wednesday and lost to the Argentinian team of Guido Andreozzi and Marua Irigoyen.

Brayden Schnur had a good tournament playing in the men’s singles and doubles. He will leave with memories of a good run which included beating the #7 seed Darian King of Barbados in the second round before losing to Dennis Novikov of the USA in quarter-finals.

Peter Polansky of Thornhill also played men’s singles. He lost in the second round.

Davis Cup

The weekend of July 17 to 19, Canada’s men’s squad will be competing in the quarter finals of Davis Cup against Belgium.  Team Canada will be without its two star players, Milos Raonic and Vasek Pospisil.  Frank Dancevic of Niagara Falls will be the number 1 singles player. Philip Peliwo of Vancouver will also plays singles.  Veteran Daniel Nestor of Toronto will team up with Davis Cup rookie, but seasoned doubles player, Adil Shamasdin of Pickering. Shamasdin is a doubles specialist with a career-high ranking of No. 55 achieved in April of this year. Currently at No. 65, Shamasdin captured his second career ATP World Tour doubles title earlier year at Casablanca with Rameez Junaid.

This is Adil’s first nomination to the Canadian Davis Cup squad after travelling with the team as a hitting partner for the past two years. We are very pleased to see Adil get a chance to represent his country in such a significant event.

Photo of Adil courtesy of Peter Figura.

Go Canada!