For the second week in a row, Canada crowned multiple champions on home soil as Rebecca Marino and Kayla Cross took home the titles at the Calgary National Bank Challenger.
Marino clinched her third title of the season in the singles, defeating American Anna Rogers 7-5, 6-4 in the final. Cross and her American partner Maribella Zamarripa took home the crown with a 6-7(3), 7-5, 12-10 victory against the all-American duo of Robin Anderson and Dalayna Hewitt.
Seeded third, Marino was near perfect throughout the week, dropping just one set in her semifinal bout against fellow Canadian Cadence Brace. In the final, Marino broke her opponent on six occasions, winning the match in just over an hour and 30 minutes.
Coming into 2024, Marino had never won a title above the ITF W60 level. All three of her titles this season have bested that mark, with the W75 win in Calgary joining a pair of W100 victories in Guanajuato, Mexico and Ilkley, United Kingdom earlier in the season. With the win, Marino draws ever closer to reentering the Top 100 and will be No. 118 in the world when the rankings are updated on Monday.
Four Canadians reached the singles quarter-finals. Brace won an all-Canadian clash over the eventual doubles champion Cross, while Stacey Fung lost to Rogers.
Cross picked up her fifth ITF doubles title of the season, going back-to-back in Alberta with Zamarripa after the pair won the title in Edmonton last week. The only set they lost in their title run was the first set of the final, which set up their dramatic victory in the match tiebreak.
In the semifinals, Cross avenged her singles loss to Brace, beating the Canadian and her American partner Jamie Loeb. They were the only two Canadians to make it out of the first round of the doubles.
On the men’s side, Murphy Casson of the United States emerged victorious with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over fellow American Govind Nanda.
Cassone, a qualifier ranked 509th in the world, had a memorable week in Calgary, defeating three of the tournament’s top seeds en route to the biggest title of his career. One of his victories came against Laval’s Alexis Galarneau in an exciting quarter-final, where he won 6-7(7), 7-6(2), 7-6(4).
Liam Draxl, fresh off a double victory in Edmonton, was the defending champion in Calgary and the last Canadian standing, reaching the semifinals before falling to Nanda.
One match of note came in the second round when Davis Cup teammates Galarneau and Vasek Pospisil met for a spot in the quarter-finals. Galarneau emerged victorious in straight sets.
The Americans continued their fine form in Calgary, with the men’s doubles final featuring four. Ryan Seggerman and Patrik Trhac prevailed 6-3, 7-6(3) over Robert Cash and James Tracy.
