ITF tennis returns to Canada (finally!) in Saskatoon

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To find the last time an ITF tournament was held in Canada, you have to go all the way back to Oct. 2019.

That was the last edition of the Tevlin Challenger in Toronto, before the pandemic hit.

No. 2 seed Francesca di Lorenzo defeated No. 1 seed Kirsten Flipkens in the final. And young Canadians Mélodie Collard and Leylah Fernandez made the doubles final.

More importantly, some 16 young Canadian women were able to take part, whether in qualifying or the main draws – even though, as a $60,000 tournament, it was pretty high level.

Canadian juniors at Wimbledon 2022 (photos)

It allowed them to gain valuable experience at home, without having to head to the far-flung reaches of the tennis ecosystem to do it – if they could even afford it.

The good news is that, after more than 2 1/2 years, there’s an ITF women’s tournament this week in Saskatoon. It’s a $25,000, and more than 20 young Canadian women are getting that opportunity.

Not that you’d know it from the lack of attention Tennis Canada is giving it. There isn’t a single mention on Twitter. And there’s just one perfunctory post on their website, where the lead news is Vasek Pospisil returning to Winnipeg next week for a larger men’s Challenger event.

On Instagram, the latest post is a rewind of the Billie Jean King Cup team’s victory over Latvia back in April.

Pandemic meant tough times at home

The pandemic hit hard for Tennis Canada – not only in the cancellation of all the lower-level tournaments, but also in their financial ability to subsidize them going forward.

The tournaments have returned in many places around the globe. If you follow our weekly “Canucks This Week” post, you see where all the Canadian players scatter every week to try to make that difficult climb up the rankings ladder.

But back at home, the opportunities have been few, although that is finally improving.

But on the men’s side, a series of entry-level Futures events that happened in 2018 did not take place in 2019.

On the women’s side, the Granby Challenger – a launching pad for many of the young Canadian women – has been upgraded to a WTA 250 this year. Which means fewer opportunities. And the $100K in Vancouver is no longer under the aegis of the ITF, but has been upgraded to a WTA 125.

This Saskatoon women’s tournament, so far, is the only ITF officialy scheduled in Canada in 2022, but it looks like things will be back to normal in the fall.

Tennis Canada has announced a new event in Fredericton – it was to debut in 2020, as you can see by the schedule below.

And the higher-end ITFs in Saguenay and Toronto – terrific events – also will return in October. As well as another $60K tournament in Calgary the second week of November.

Tennis Canada also has announced a $25K men’s tournament to be held in a Quebec City suburb, the last week of October.

Canadian events part of Fernandez’s rise

For a player like Leylah Fernandez, who didn’t have much funding and went out on the ITF circuit early (in large part because it’s cheaper than competing on the ITF circuit), the Canadian events were a big part of her early experience.

In 2017, when Fernandez was still 14, turning 15, she played $25K events in Winnipeg and Gatineau, and $60K tournaments in Saguenay and Granby.

In 2019, she played six more events at home – winning her first professional title in Gatineau – and also made her main-draw debut at the National Bank Open.

Male players scattered around the U.S.

As for the men’s side, there aren’t many prospects at the upper levels of the juniors.

In fact, there’s only one – Jaden Weekes – who has competed at the junior Grand Slams this season.

But there are plenty who are playing college tennis in the U.S. And to get matches this summer, they’re all travelling to places like Mexico, and California, and Texas, and Oklahoma, and Pittsburgh, PA, and Michigan to get experience.

Only a privileged few will be able to get wild cards at the Challengers this summer, in Winnipeg and Vancouver and Granby. Those are at the high end of the Challenger scale, and attract good fields.

In the fall, Tennis Canada announced back in March that the Calgary Challenger (Nov. 6-13) and Drummondville Challenger (Nov. 14-20 – it was previous held early in the season) would return in 2022.

But back to Saskatoon …

On Wednesday, two girls who are among the players in Tennis Canada’s national development program squared off in Saskatoon.

Kayla Cross and Victoria Mboko, who is just 15, teamed up to reach the final of the girls’ doubles at Wimbledon just 10 days ago.

You can watch it here.

They were among six Canadian girls and women who won their first-round singles matches – some of them against impressive competition.

Mboko upset the No. 1 seed, Valentini Grammatikopoulou, in three sets in the first round.

The ITF is providing livestreaming of the two courts. So you can follow along here this week.

All of this is notable because of the splashy plans Tennis Canada announced this week, in conjuction with the upcoming women’s WTA 1000 event in Toronto.

The first ambassador for the “Mental Timeout Project” is Bianca Andreescu.

But it goes beyond that.

Girls, Set, Match

Earlier this year, the federation announced a sharpened focus on getting girls and women to play, and make tennis a sport for a lifetime by staying involved.

Andreescu also is the honorary ambassador for that.

In March, the federation announced a new position – “Director of Women and Girls Advancement”, seemingly underwritten by Tennis Canada sponsor National Bank.

No doubt new director Kimberley Madeiros and the others involved are on the ground in Saskatoon, networking with all these young players from Canada and elsewhere.

It’s the first opportunity Tennis Canada has had to have so many young Canadian women in the same place, at the same time – a perfect place to gauge their mindset, their career plans and what they think the organization could do to facilitate lifelong commitments to the sport.

Most of them will never become top-level pros like Andreescu. But tennis is already in their blood. Out of their ranks will (hopefully) come the next generation of coaches, officials and other tennis-related professions.

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