GABY DABROWSKI CELEBRATES PANAM GAMES WIN IN AURORA

On Saturday July 18^th the grass court at Hillary House in Aurora was graced by two very special players at their event to celebrate the Pan Am games. Bob Bedard who won a silver medal in the 1959 Chicago games in men’s singles (see player in photo left) and Gabriela Dabrowski (see player right), who had just won a silver medal in mixed doubles and a gold medal in women’s doubles, showed off their tennis prowess in an exhibition match on the recently restored grass court.

Ontario Tennis took the opportunity to interview Gaby and produced this video of the interview celebrating her appearance at the Pan Am games and this community event.  As Gaby learnt to play tennis on public courts near her home in Ottawa, she is a great believer in and supporter of community tennis.

The Aurora Historical Society special exhibit entitled Tennis In Canada: From Early Beginnings to Global Success. This exhibit includes equipment used by the Hillary family that was found in the house. The Aurora Community Tennis Club was started at the Hillary House courts. The Hillary House museum and the special exhibit are open to the public Wednesday through Saturday from 10am to 4pm and will be open through September.  For more information go to www.aurorahs.com .

ERIN ROUTLIFFE WINS NCAA TITLE AGAIN

Headwaters Racquet Club put on a special celebration to mark the success of Caledon's Erin Routliffe. Erin, a sophomore at University of Alabama, partnered with junior Maya Jansen, to win the NCAA Divison 1 doubles title for the second consecutive year.  They are doubly the pride of the Crimson Tide!! 

Since then, Erin has been playing some Challenger tournaments. At the 2015 National Bank event in Granby held the third week in July Erin got a special surprise as she was paired with former British number 1 and Olympic mixed doubles silver medalist, Laura Robson.  When Erin was told who her partner would be she searched online to see if there was another Laura Robson who played tennis in case she was mistaken. The two meshed nicely and were able to take out the second and fourth seeds before eventually losing in the doubles final. “It was a little intimidating but I was just trying to hold my own, do what I do best on the court and try to help us gel as a doubles team,” Erin commented. “Laura is super nice. She’s awesome.” 

Erin is pictured her with Joanne Pilkey,Director of Racquet Sports at Headwaters Racquet Club.

ROMAN CUP & SPORTING LIFE ONTARIO OPEN

The Roman Cup Memorial Ontario Junior Open and the Sporting Life Ontario Open were held in Ottawa at the Rideau Club between July 29^th and August 3^rd. The Roman Cup was created in honour of local tennis professional Roman Kowalski and signifies his and his family’s passion for and dedication to tennis. These championships have been steadily growing in popularity and this year there were well over four hundred entries.  That’s a lot of tennis!

The champions, finalists and semifinalists in singles and the doubles champions and finalists are listed here. 

U10 Boys Sasha Rozin, Matthew Overvelde,Liam Drover-Mattinen,Chase Stark.

U10 Girls Cadence Brace, Victoria Mboko, Victoria Linkovski, Maria Popova.

U12 BS Aiden Drover-Mattinen, Stefano Liokossis, Marcello Audino, David Gauberg.

BD Stefano Liokossis & Marcello Audino, Joshua Kim & Adrian Smith.

U12 GS Dasha Plekhanova, Catherine Isabelle Denysiewicz-Slowek, Emma Rutherford, Kelly Norkor Dowuona  GD Juliette Begin & Catherine Isabelle Denysiewicz-Slowek, Jessica Luisa Alsola, Dasha Plekhanova

U14 BS Ethan Meanchos, Stefan Storch, Marko Arezina, Ashton Cross.  BD Ethan Meanchos & Alex Oancea, Isaac Ogilvy & Stefan Storch.

U14 GS Natasha Sengphrachanh, Alexandra Mikhailuk, Alexandra Arkhipov, Karin Hamilton. GD Alexia Di Giulio & Natasha Sengphrachanh, Alexandra Arkhipov & Alexandra Mikhailuk.

U16 BS Malik Bhatnagar, Sasha Pachnev, Michel-Alexandre Fortin, Philippe Laroche. BD Malik Bhatnagar & Peter Kuszynski, Michal Ostrzygalo & Oscar Yang.

U16 GS Ashleigh Jacobs, Noemie Lapointe, Natasha Sengphrachanh, Laura Crivei. GD Laura Crivei & Betina Stanescu, Rita Colyer & Natasha Sengphrachanh.

U18 BS Clarke Wilson, Roy Stepanov, Joshua Robert Wilson, Simon Stoula. BD Hielke Moore & Roy Stepanov, Marc Isaia & Clarke Wilson.

U18 GS Ashleigh Jacobs, Anna Philp, Tiara Higuchi, Rhea Verma. GD Tiara Higuchi & Anna Philp, Ashleigh Jacobs & Sophia Kateryna Storch.

Sporting Life Ontario Open

MS Serge Oliver Becerra, Egor Koleganov, Julien Belair, Sam Philp. MD Julien Belair & Alain Jr P Humblet, Serge Oliver Becerra & Jesse Flores.

WS Petra Januskova, Sandra Dynka, Ekaterina Shulaeva, Anne-Sophie Courteau. WD Anne-Sophie Courteau & Petra Januskova, Leigh Bradwell & Ekaterina Shulaeva.

Singles champions Serge Oliver Becerra and Petra Januskova are pictured here with the Ontario Open permanent trophies.

Congratulations to all the champions and players who saw success and a big thank you to the OTA staff, the officials, the Rideau Club and all the parents and players who helped make sure that this event was completed and that this highlight of the summer played on the long weekend in the middle of summer was such a great success.  There was even a 128 draw one-point tournament played to keep things fun and light!

PRESIDENTS' DAY AT ROGERS CUP

It started as an interesting way to get OTA member Club Presidents together for an education and feedback session and has turned into an extremely popular annual tennis executive appreciation event. On the first morning of main draw play at the Rogers Cup, club presidents are invited to a breakfast and educational session in the morning and then have day session tickets to watch the first round matches.    

Monday August 10^th 2015 saw yet another very successful OTA Presidents' Day held at the recently renamed Aviva Centre.  This year there was a record turnout of 230 participants representing more than 100 member clubs.   There was a presentation by Mark Healy, Chief Marketing Officer of Tennis Canada, and a question and answer session with WTA featured player Sharon Fichman. Sharon grew up in Toronto, she started competing in OTA tournaments at the age of 7 and has represented Canada in Federation Cup many times.  She is returning to competitive play at the Rogers Cup playing doubles with Carol Zhao, after 9 months of rehabilitation and training after surgery. She is currently based in Vancouver where she is coached by Larry Jurovich.

Six video clips of her question and answer session are available on the Ontario Tennis Association Facebook page which you can connect to via the www.tennisontario.com  website.

Sharon offered selected participants with photo a photo opportunity. She is pictured here with members of the executive of the Intercounty Tennis Association (ICTA). They are, left to right, John Mowat (ICTA Mixed League Director), Margot Willoughby (Lawrence Park TC), Adrian Cordea (ICTA CIO), Sharon Fichman (WTA player), Sonja Zibin (Liaison Officer), Adwynna MacKenzie (Ladies League Director), Rick Bertozzi (ICTA President).

After the presentation attendees got to see Gabriela Dabrowski of Ottawa play Flavia Penetta on centre court.  Gaby, who recently won gold and silver medals at the Pan Am games in mixed and women’s doubles and who received a wild card into the main draw of the Rogers Cup, put up a fine display of tennis before falling to the more experienced and highly ranked Italian, 6-4,6-1.

#GETONTHECOURT – THE CONTEST –THE MAG

The #getonthecourt tennis promotion heats up this week at Rogers Cup with the announcement of the first of several planned contests. Rob Steckley dropped by the OTA booth to help promote the contest (see photo).

The first contest is a photo contest. The prize - a free tennis lesson on Centre Court at the Aviva Centre at York University with Rob Steckley, coach of top ten player, Lucie Safarova.

 To enter:-

1. Take a photo of you or a friend on the tennis court to show us how you "get on the court".

2. LIKE Ontario Tennis Association on Facebook and/or FOLLOW Tennis  Ontario (@TennisOntario) on Twitter

3. POST your photo on the Ontario Tennis Association Facebook page or TWEET @TennisOntario. Make sure to include #GetontheCourt and your photo!

The winner will be announced on September 15^th, 2015.

The full rules can be found at

https://tennisontario.com/pages/rules-and-regulations-photo-contest

To see Rob’s announcement of the contest   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2pHob41k0U

The #GETONTHECOURT summer issue of Ontario Tennis Magazine is also now available at your member club or online at http://digital.lmgroup.com/t/8729-ontario-tennis . Remember you can check out all the issues of Ontario Tennis published since 2011 from this link.