The four U18 boys doubles finalists pose at the the net at the U18 Fischer Outdoor Nationals, one of four Canadian junior championships over the last month.

Photo : Pierre Azar

August was a huge month for junior tennis in Canada.

It was outdoor junior nationals month with four age groups having their champions crowned. The nation also played host to its biggest ITF event on the calendar.

Here is your monthly junior update presented by Har-Tru. 

Junior Nationals

The Fischer Outdoor Junior Nationals took place over the last month in three cities. The U18s held their tournament in Mississauga, ON while the U16s were just a few kilometres away in Toronto. Both the U14 and U12 events were in Laval, QC.

Click the links below to read the full tournament recaps:

Repentigny

Canada’s largest ITF junior event, the J300 Repentigny National Bank Junior Tennis Championships, took place at the end of August in Repentigny, QC.

The highlight for the host nation was a boys doubles victory for twins Mikael and Nicholas Arseneault in an all-Canadian final. Italy’s Noemi Basiletti and Czechia’s Maxim Mrvawon the singles titles.

Click here to read the Repentigny tournament recap.

King of Kigali

With most of Canada’s top juniors at home playing at the national championships, it was a quieter month for Canadian results abroad on the ITF circuit.

The exception was in Kigali, Rwanda, where Jay Lin Gibson won three titles at back-to-back J60s.

At the first event, Gibson won the singles title, beating top seed Allan Gatoto of Burundi in two tight sets in the final. The following week, the 16-year-old will double up, claiming both the singles and doubles titles.

In singles, Gibson was the top seed and dropped just one set on his way to the title. He had to battle a bit harder in the doubles with Xiuyuan Guo of China, as the pair fought through third-set tiebreaks in both the semifinals and final.

Emma Dong was the lone Canadian competing at the junior US Open but lost in the first round of qualifying to second seed Christasha McNeil of the United States.

Here is a list of Canadians who reached finals at events outside of Canada over the last month (Titles in bold)  

  • Jay Lin Gibson: J60 Kigali 1 boys singles champion, J60 Kigali 2 boys singles champion, J60 Kigali 2 doubles champion
  • Anissa Saada: J30 Santa Tecla girls doubles champion, J30 Santa Tecla girls singles runner-up
  • Ashvini Tara Gopalan: J30 Tegucigalpa girls doubles champion, J30 Tegucigalpa girls singles runner-up
  • Mihajlo Ilic: J30 Zlatibor boys doubles champion

Rankings Update

Nadia Lagaev remains the top Canadian overall in the ITF Junior rankings, sitting at No. 82 in the girls rankings although she has slipped a couple of spots over the last month. Dong is 30 places behind her at No. 112.

Nicolas Arseneault has cracked the Top 100 in the boys rankings, sitting just inside at No. 97.

Check out the full ITF junior rankings here.   

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