Photo : Sarah-Jade Champagne
Liam Draxl was the star at the second edition of the Edmonton National Bank Challenger last week, winning both the singles and doubles titles at the ITF M25 tournament. Canadians accounted for wins in three of the four draws at the combined event, with Kayla Cross lifting the trophy in the women’s doubles.
Seeded No. 2 in the singles, Draxl strung together a series of straight-set wins to book his ticket to the final, ousting Jim Hendrikx of the Netherlands followed by his fellow Canadians Nicaise Muamba and Alvin Nicolas Tudorica.
In the semis, he beat American Adhithya Ganesan before finishing off the title run with a win over another American, Patrick Maloney, 6-4, 6-1 to add a sixth professional singles title to his record and raise his first trophy of the season.
Draxl was one of four Canadian men to reach the singles quarter-finals. Taha Baadi also reached the semifinals, upsetting top seed Aziz Dougaz in the last eight, before falling to Maloney.
It was double delight for the 22-year-old Draxl as he also claimed the doubles title with Cleeve Harper, winning an all-Canadian final over Benjamin Thomas George and Alvin Tudorica 6-4, 6-4. The win was their second in 2024 as a pair. Draxl now has eight ITF doubles titles to his name while Harper has six.
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The duo dropped only one set along the way, in the semis against Lucas Hammond and Boris Kozlov of the United States. In the first two rounds, Draxl and Harper, who were the top seeds in Edmonton, defeated all-Canadian pairs: Adam Faragcao and Joshua Peck in round one followed by the twins Mikael and Nicolas Arseneault in the quarter-finals.
Three of the four titles in Edmonton were won by the host nation as Kayla Cross claimed the women’s doubles title with American Maribella Zamarripa. They clinched the title with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Jessica Failla and Anna Rogers of the United States.
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The win is the fourth of the season and sixth overall for Cross in doubles. Seeded third, the pair had to grind through match tiebreaks in their first two rounds before knocking off the in-form top seeds Ariana Arseneault and Mia Kupres in the semis.
In the singles, Julie Belgraver of France denied the host nation of a sweep, beating Arseneault 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 in the final. The Frenchwoman won all her matches in three sets, including wins over Canadians Cross in the second round and Cadence Brace in the quarter-finals before besting Arseneault for the title.
