Photo: Pascal Ratthé/Tennis Canada

Tennis Canada announced on Tuesday the launch of the Challenge of the North circuit, which will regroup some of the best young players in Quebec and Ontario to take part in a series of competitive tournaments.

The circuit will include four mini tournaments in the cities where Tennis Canada was forced to cancel international events due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the course of four weeks, the cities of Montreal, Repentigny, Laval and Granby will play host to these events. A number of sanitary measures have been put in place in each of the tournament sites to ensure to health and safety of everyone involved.

“Due to the ongoing pandemic and the forced cancellation of our Canadian tournaments, many of our junior and transition players are missing out on the opportunity to gain valuable experience this summer. With this circuit, we are hoping to give them some good opportunities for competitive play and the chance to win a bit of prize money,” explained Richard Quirion, Director of tournaments at Tennis Canada. “While we cannot completely make up for what these players have lost during this hiatus in the tennis season, it is our role as a federation to find ways to help them continue to develop during these difficult times.”

Each participant will have to play in at least two of the three initial phases in order to be eligible to compete in the final, which will take place on the site of the Granby National Bank Challenger. The players will accumulate points during the first three phases and the top eight players from each category will qualify for the final. The champions will each receive $2000 in prize money. A total of 12 players are set to compete in the women’s draw and eight on the men’s side. The action kicks off this week at IGA Stadium in Montreal.

Competitors

Mélodie Collard
Catherine Denysiewicz-Slowek
Sarah-Maude Fortin
Mia Kupres
Raphaëlle Lacasse
Catherine Leduc
Victoria Mboko
Dharani Niroshan
Noëlly Nsimba
Orly Ogilvy
Marina Stakusic
Annabelle Xu

Christophe Clément
Kamen Damov
Sid Donarski
Washi Gervais
Dan Martin
Nicolas Ocana Lavoie
Maxime St-Hilaire
Jaden Weekes

Schedule

Phase 1 – Montreal

  • Date: August 17-19, 2020
  • Site: IGA Stadium, Montreal

Phase 2 – Repentigny

  • Date: August 21-23, 2020
  • Site: Parc Larochelle, Repentigny

Phase 3 – Laval

  • Date: August 28-30, 2020
  • Site: Parc St-Victor, Laval

Final phase – Granby

  • Date: September 4-6, 2020
  • Site: Parc St-Luc, Granby
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