2011/17/07 – SPOTT « VanPubTennis

2011/17/07 – SPOTT

Notes on Juniors, U18 Finals Friday, Stanley Park Open

The Juniors competitions are events of greatest interest to parents, siblings, and friends of the players. Nevertheless, there are a few ordinary tennis fans who realise how good the tennis can be, and find the time to watch. This writer was on hand for the ITF Under 18 doubles final events.

The U18 boys doubles final was perhaps the most entertaining match, from a non-family member spectator’s point of view. The players used the whole court with the boys attacking the net on most points. The score turned out to be a bit one-sided, because Hugo Difoe and partner, Daniel Bednarczyk, were able to send what often would have been winning volleys and other strokes, from Matsuya and Portnov, back across the net. Great defending, on top of a strong offense.

The girl’s doubles final was very closely contested in the score for the first set, but tended to feature rather more cross court baseline rallying than anything else. One can wonder, at times, if it is not the coaching that seems to bring girls to doubles playing singles on one side of the court, while the boys play entirely differently. Unfortunately, I missed the most closely contested final, the U18 girls singles. It went to a third set tie-breaker that won the championship for Pande Ambika, pictured below on court in her semifinal.

In the award ceremonies, the ITF finalists and champions were introduced by name, with their country sometimes mentioned. While the emcee of the award ceremony for Boys Under 18 Doubles told spectators that players had traveled a long distance to participate, he did not tell from whence they came, other than one lad who was said to be from Japan. His partner was announced as being from Canada, the champion pair were introduced by name only. When I asked what provinces the players were from, I was told, “This is ITF, we say they are from Canada”. Informative.

In past years it has always been of interest to know that players might be from St Foy, or Montreal, or Toronto, or Calgary, or Edmonton, or at least what province they had travelled here from. Canada is, after all, a country very near the size of Europe. It is a big deal to travel across it, or even a portion of it, for most folks. Many Vancouver residents have come from other provinces, and would be interested to know where the players had travelled from.

Europe (10,180,000 km2/ 3,930,000 sq mi total area) = 50 countries, 4 time zones
Canada (9,984,670 km2/ 3,855,100 sq mi total area) = 1 country, 5 time zones

For those who may, like me, be interested, I have managed to discover via the internet player origins for the U18 finalists and champions that the emcee at Friday’s awards ceremonies did not wish to pass on:

Boys singles U18
Champion: Hugo Di Feo (Montreal, Quebec), 6-0, 6-3.
Finalist: Mitchell Toby (Great Britain – Somerset, England)

Boys doubles U18:
Champions: Daniel Bednarczyk (London, Ontario) and Hugo Di Feo (Montreal, Quebec), 6-3, 6-0.
Finalists: Toshiki Matsuya (Japan??? USA – Redmond, Washington) and Tim Portnov (Port Moody, BC).
Aside from this tournament, Toshiki’s nationality has been listed as American. A match record for the lad shows not a single tournament ever played in Japan – all previous tournaments played in the USA.

Girl’s Singles U18:
Champion: Pande Ambika (India – New Delhi), 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(5).
Finalist: Gloria Liang (Mississauga, Ontario)

Girl’s Doubles U18:
Champions: Tracy Dong (Surrey, BC ) and Kristina Sanjevic (Edmonton, Alberta). 7-6(5), 6-2.
Finalists: Devin and Lauren Chypyha (Richmond Hill, Ontario )

A few glimpses of ITF Under 18 Juniors semis and finals. My own enthusiasm is doubles, and that’s mostly what I viewed. Click on the thumbnails below. And check the line judge at the back in these photos – the players are not the only ones getting a good workout on court.