February 11, 2025

Open Court

MORE TENNIS THAN YOU'LL EVER NEED

First Challenger title for Can-Israeli Stepanov (updated)

(Roy Stepanov/Instagram)

You won’t have heard of Roy Stepanov, although you’ll have seen his name if you keep up with our “Canucks This Week” page every week.

But the 24-year-old, born in Afula, Israel and who spent his teenage years in Nova Scotia and Burlington, Ont., won his first career Challenger title Saturday.

Stepanov and partner Andres Urrea of Colombia won the Santos Brasil Tennis Cup, a $40,000, Challenger 50-level event on red clay.

The No. 3 seeds had a sweet final two rounds – winning both by walkover (not the only two in this tournament by a long way). But that’ll all be forgotten, because it’s a milestone in a nascent career that pivoted quickly to doubles, but that is just getting started.

Stepanov immigrated to Nova Scotia with his parents when he was about 13. Then, he told Open Court, he got an opportunity on scholarship with Pierre Lamarche and the Ace Academy and spent several years there before going on to college in the U.S.

Shutout to Lamarche, Burke and Ace, as well as Head Start tennis in Nova Scotia. It takes a village.

So he’s been living in the U.S. for about six years.

Stepanov with noted Canadian coaches Doug Burke and Pierre Lamarche, at the Ace Academy in Burlington, Ont. Lamarche and the academy were hugely helpful to Stepanov during his junior years.

Stepanov, who is associated with the Mission Elite academy in Toronto, represented Canada as a junior. In fact, he represented until less than a year ago. He went from playing for Canada to playing for his native Israel in early June of 2023, before a $25K ITF in Wichita, Kansas.

He’s far from the only Canadian to have made this kind of switch – especially not among those young Canadians who went the college route.

The most well-known of those is US Open champion Erin Routliffe, who went all the way through the Tennis Canada national program in Montreal and onto the University of Alabama – before the reality that the national federation had little interest in supporting players who went to U.S. university or – perish the thought – knew fairly early their professional career path was likely to be doubles. So she now represents New Zealand, where she was born.

Others include Alejando Tabilo, who is a top-35 player as of this week and will play Novak Djokovic in Rome on Sunday. He’s now a Chilean, the land of his parents. There is also Alexander Donski, who now represents Bulgaria and Wimbledon and US Open junior champion Filip Peliwo, now representing his parents’ native Poland.

Davis Cup opportunities

Stepanov is a dual citizen. But it was always his intention to try to play for Israel.

(Stepanov has been nominated twice to represent Israel in Davis Cup).

One obvious perk is the possibility of playing Davis Cup. That’s not likely something he was ever going to get a chance to do for Canada.

And Stepanov did just that last February, when Israel played Czechia in the World Group playoffs.

He didn’t get on the court (and Israel was swept).

But it’s still an honour and you imagine he’ll have other opportunities.

He’s the second highest-ranked doubles player in Israel behind Daniel Cukierman (No. 186), who often plays the same tournaments he does.

Winning the Santos title will hardly put him in fat city; his cheque for winning the Challenger is … $1,070 US and bring Stepanov’s career earnings in pro tennis to a little less than $14,000 US.

But the 50 points will hike his doubles ranking, currently at No. 357, all the way up to No. 309.

Education first

After high school, Stepanov first headed off to Lamar University, an NCAA Division I school in Beaumont, Texas.

He then moved to Wingate University in North Carolina, which is Div II. He graduated with a 4.0, summa cum laude with a BS in finance (which, if you scroll all the way back to his high-school social media, probably didn’t seem like a possibility at the time. 🤣)

(Pic: Wingate University Athletics).

After that, Stepanov did an executive MBA at Southeastern University in Lakeland, Fla., finishing up a year ago after playing his fifth season as a grad student.

So as he was finishing up his education – even as he played a fair few ITF tournaments in that final year – he changed his national representation, and has played virtually every week since.

And now, he’s a Challenger champion.

(And he’s got some good dubs videos, too).

About Post Author