The exciting stretch of professional tennis continues in Western Canada this week, as players now shift their sights from Edmonton to the Calgary National Bank Challenger.
The joint men’s and women’s event returns for its fifth year and features several high-profile Canadians in the field, including former Wimbledon doubles champion Vasek Pospisil and esteemed veteran Rebecca Marino.
Draxl looks to defend biggest win, Pospisil is back
Liam Draxl is riding a wave of confidence after a flawless week of tennis in Edmonton.
The 22-year-old from Newmarket tore through the draw in singles, winning all five of his matches in straight sets, and paired up with fellow Canadian Cleeve Harper to also claim the doubles crown.
He’s set to defend his title this week in Calgary. Draxl was crowned champion last year, upsetting world No. 81 Dominik Koepfer in the final to win his first career ATP Challenger. The Canadian is seeded seventh this week in Alberta.
Meanwhile, Vasek Pospisil will be competing in his first regular tour event since August, when he retired at the National Bank Open with a back injury, although he did play during the Davis Cup Group Stage in September. The 34-year-old veteran is not only a former Grand Slam champion in doubles, he’s also a Davis Cup winner with Canada, and has been ranked as high as No. 25 in singles.
Alexis Galarneau is also competing in Calgary and is hoping to build off a quarter-finals run at the ATP Challenger in Fairfield last week. The 25-year-old has one Challenger title to his name and reached the finals of the Ciudad de Mexico Challenger on clay earlier this season. He opened his tournament this week with an upset victory over American J.J. Wolf on Monday.
Maks Kasinowski of Tunisia is the top seed in the draw, while former Wimbledon quarter-finalist Bernard Tomic is also in action.
Marino leads Canadian charge, Maria is No. 1 seed
Rebecca Marino is the highest ranked Canadian player this week in Calgary, and the world No. 136 has been showing strong form of late on the circuit. The 33-year-old reached back-to-back quarter-finals at ITF events in the US, and finished runner-up in doubles in Templeton, California. The 15-time ITF singles winner, who is set to represent Canada at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals this Fall, is seeded second this week.
In total, there are eight Canadians in the singles draw.
Tatjana Maria is the first seed in the women’s field and the crafty German will bring her great pedigree and experience to Alberta. Maria has won three WTA singles titles and was a Wimbledon semifinalist in 2022.
