Canada Falls Short at ITF World Junior Tennis Finals

Crew Canada couldn’t replicate its second-place end from 2023, failing to make it to the knockout stage on the ITF World Junior Tennis Finals this week in Prostejov, Czechia.

Canada would end the occasion fifteenth out of 16 groups. 

The USA defeated Brazil 2-0 within the boys’ remaining to win their seventh ITF World Junior Tennis Closing and first since 2019.

Captain Phillippe Courteau led the Canadian crew of Callum MacKinnon, Julian Mahdavi, and Luca Vicol into the clay court docket occasion the place they’d tackle Nice Britain, Japan, and the Netherlands within the round-robin.

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Canada performed the fifth-seeded Japanese crew to open the event on Monday however misplaced all three matches within the fixture. 

MacKinnon, the 2024 Beneath 14 Fischer Indoor Nationwide Champion, began sturdy in his first match, taking the primary set 6-0 from Takahiro Kawaguchi. Nonetheless, the Toronto, Ont., native couldn’t preserve that momentum by the match, dropping the following two units to fall 0-6, 7-5, 6-0.

Mahdavi was additionally unable to win his opening singles match as he retired within the second set down 6-4, 2-2 to Shintaro Ogaki. Ogaki and accomplice Kango Endoh helped Japan clinch the sweep of the fixture with a 6-0, 6-1 doubles win over Mahdavi and British Columbia Indoor Provincial Champion, Luca Vicol.

The Canadians would as soon as once more get swept and fall to 0-2 by the hands of No. 3 seed Nice Britain. Mahdavi dropped his second singles match of the occasion 6-0, 6-0 to Scott Watson, whereas MacKinnon fell to Eric Lorimer 6-1, 1-6, 6-1 to clinch the group match for the Brits. MacKinnon and Vicol had been unable to salvage a victory of their doubles match, dropping to Watson and Niall Pickerd-Barua 6-3, 7-5. 

Canada would end the round-robin with a 2-1 win over the Netherlands. MacKinnon earned Canada’s first singles win of the event, defeating Stan Put 1-6, 6-1, 6-1. He would later crew with Vicol to take their first doubles match of the event 7-6 (5), 2-6 [10-8] over Ivan Van Ruiten and Laurens Drijver.

Regardless of the victory, Canada completed third in Group C behind Nice Britain and Japan.

The Canadians would transfer into the comfort bracket the place they’d lose 2-1 to Morrocco earlier than ending the event on a successful word, defeating Tunisia 2-1 of their remaining event matchup.

MacKinnon had a powerful exhibiting within the event, successful three of his 5 singles matches. He was the one member of Crew Canada to win a singles match all through the occasion.

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