Arseneault, Kupres Reign at Home in Granby

Photo : Sarah-Jade Champagne

One hour east of Montreal, the Championnats Banque Nationale took place this past week in Granby with both a 75K ITF women’s event and a men’s ATP Challenger event.

There was plenty to celebrate for the local fans in women’s doubles as the Canadian pairing of Ariana Arseneault and Mia Kupres walked away as champions. Adversaries during the NCAA College season at the University of Auburn and Texas A&M University, the pair are nonetheless close friends. They triumphed against Liang En-shuo and Sohyun Park 6-4, 2-6, 10-6 in the closely contested final.

In the singles, Canada’s Kayla Cross gave the fans plenty to cheer about as she reached the final. The lefty has had a challenging past year with knee issues, but when healthy as she is now, she has proven to be an up-and-coming talent to keep an eye on.

Cross fell to American Maria Mateas in the final 6-3, 7-6(3). Mateas lived up to her No. 1 seed and used her power and experience to her advantage in the biggest match of the event. She turned 25 on the day of the final and delivered herself a present that will now bring her closer to the Top 200 in the WTA rankings.

In a recent interview on Match Point Canada, Cross mentioned how at the professional level, the consistency from players is a big adjustment from the junior level. While Mateas had more of it on this day, the 19-year-old Canadian is starting to show that same aspect in her game with more regularity.

In the men’s event, it was disappointment for defending champion Alexis Galarneau, who fell in the opening round at the hands of American qualifier Bruno Kuzuhara .

After his loss, the 25-year-old from Laval shared that, “I’m taking this pretty hard, that’s for sure. I wasn’t at my best physically (he later referenced muscle spasms), I didn’t play my best tennis either, but I have to give credit to Kuzuhara who played a great match.”

Next up for Galarneau is the Challenger event in Chicago, followed by qualifying at the Citi Open in Washington DC and then hopefully the National Bank Open in Montreal, he says.

Justin Boulais made it the furthest of the Canadian men in singles by reaching the round of sixteen. Along the way he defeated the most well-known name in the draw, beating former ATP No. 25 Vasek Pospisil.

Chatting with Boulais the following morning as he worked on his serve under the watchful eye of his mother and former Canadian No. 1 Patricia Hy Boulais, he revealed to me how special it was to play Pospisil. He shared that he had grown up watching the veteran and always had a high level of respect for him both as a tennis player and a person.

Pospisil, playing in only his second tournament in the past three months, said after the loss that he found the evening humidity in Granby too much on opening night and couldn’t bring the energy required as he fell to Boulais 6-4, 6-4.

The last man standing in the singles draw was Bu Yunchaokete of China, who defeated second seed Terence Atmane of France 6-3, 6-7(7), 6-4. The 22-year-old is now up to No. 147 in the ATP rankings, which represents a new career high. Atmane, being French, was warmly embraced by the Granby crowds this week and is up to No. 118 which also represents his best ranking.

Read also: Things We Learned at Wimbledon

Men’s doubles had a Canadian presence in the finals as did the women’s, however the unseeded duo of Boulais and Joshua Lapadat were defeated by fourth seeds Andres Andrade and Mac Kiger 3-6, 6-3, 10-2 in the championship match.

With Canadians making three of the four finals in Granby, the event can definitely be seen as a success. It holds an important place on the summer hard court circuit, taking place just two weeks prior to the action commencing at the National Bank Open in Montreal and Toronto. Look for many of these players to be competing in either the pre-qualifying draw in Toronto or the actual qualifying draw both there and in Montreal as they look to further their professional careers at the highest level.

Written By

Mike McIntyre