Workforce 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’ closing to win their seventh ITF World Junior Tennis Last and first since 2019.
Captain Phillippe Courteau led the Canadian group of Callum MacKinnon, Julian Mahdavi, and Luca Vicol into the clay courtroom 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 group to open the match on Monday however misplaced all three matches within the fixture.
MacKinnon, the 2024 Underneath 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 way of the match, dropping the subsequent 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, shedding 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 match, defeating Stan Put 1-6, 6-1, 6-1. He would later group with Vicol to take their first doubles match of the match 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 match on a profitable be aware, defeating Tunisia 2-1 of their closing match matchup.
MacKinnon had a robust displaying within the match, profitable three of his 5 singles matches. He was the one member of Workforce Canada to win a singles match all through the occasion.
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