Thomas Venos has his eyes on one other sweep on the Birmingham Nationwide Wheelchair Tennis Championships this week on the Sobeys Atlantic Tennis Centre in Bedford, NS, contemporary off an ITF victory on dwelling soil in Fredericton, NB.
The 25-year-old from British Columbia is the two-time defending champion in males’s singles on the nationwide championships and three-time defending champion in doubles. He shall be eyeing his third sweep in a row after claiming each titles every of the final two years.
There are 13 opponents within the males’s singles this yr in Bedford, making it the biggest competitors on the Birmingham Nationwide Championships. It begins out with a gaggle stage the place the gamers are divided into 4 teams, three teams of three and one group of 4, with the highest two in every group advancing to the knockout stage.
Venos is the highest seed and leads Group A. He kicked off the competitors with a win dominant win over Paul Michael Novak early Thursday morning 6-0, 6-0. He’s additionally the highest seed in doubles alongside Barry Henderson in a seven-team elimination bracket, the place they’ve the lone bye.
On the 2023 nationwide wheelchair championships, there was a sweep in every division and all three athletes are again in 2024. Together with Venos, Natalia Lanucha received each singles and doubles on the ladies’s aspect whereas Mitch McIntyre did the identical within the quads. All three are returning to defend their titles this week.
Lanucha has 4 challengers within the ladies’s singles occasion, which shall be a spherical robin. Her opposition consists of doubles companion and former nationwide champion Anne-Marie Dolinar, rising star Frédérique Bérubé-Perron, Vicki Lee Morton and Marilyn Abbs.
Bérubé-Perron, who received her first ITF titles in July and have become the primary Canadian junior ever to qualify for a wheelchair Grand Slam occasion on the US Open, can also be one among three gamers competing within the junior draw this week.
McIntyre is one among 4 gamers competing within the quad singles, which can also be a round-robin occasion.
There are simply two pairs competing in each the ladies’s and quad doubles.
Click on right here for the total attracts and outcomes from the Birmingham Nationwide Wheelchair Tennis Championships.
ITF Fredericton
Venos will arrive on the Birmingham Nationals contemporary off a victory on the Certain Grip Worldwide Wheelchair Tennis Open, an ITF Futures occasion, in Fredericton final week.
The 25-year-old was the highest seed and cruised to the title, beating fellow Canadian Henderson 6-2, 6-2 within the semifinals and American Jason Keatseangslip 6-3, 6-3 within the last. It’s the third ITF singles title of 2024 for Venos and his seventh total.
“One other good match for me immediately. It was a really comparable match to yesterday’s the place I knew if I might hit my photographs I might win,” mentioned Venos after the ultimate. “Like yesterday’s match, I as soon as once more had a slower begin and a dip midway by the second set. However I weathered the storm and shortly bounced again. I’m taking part in properly and can look to enhance on this way going into nationals”
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It was a sweep for Venos in New Brunswick as he additionally received the doubles title with Henderson. There have been solely three groups within the round-robin occasion and the Canadians completed atop the group to say the trophy.
The title is Venos’ seventh doubles crown of 2024. With that win, he has now greater than doubled his profession haul this yr alone as he entered the season with six complete ITF doubles titles, a quantity he has now elevated to 13.
Shaw Heading to Arnhem
Rob Shaw will cap off his 2024 season on the Wheelchair Masters occasion in Arnhem, Netherlands. It was introduced final week that the Canadian certified as a part of the eight-player singles subject on the year-end championships, the wheelchair equal of the ATP and WTA Finals.
He at present sits at No. 7 within the ITF quad rankings, one spot again of his profession excessive. The highest eight gamers within the rankings certified for Arnhem and can compete from Nov. 11 to 17.
In 2024, Shaw has received two singles titles, together with the largest win of his profession on the ITF 1 Sequence occasion in Geneva in July, and reached the quarter-finals of the Paralympics.
Shaw has performed on the Wheelchair Masters every of the final two years. He was eradicated within the group stage each occasions. The 34-year-old can also be a two-time runner-up in doubles though he’s not entered in 2024.
The Wheelchair Tennis Masters is the biggest wheelchair tennis occasion ever received by a Canadian. Sarah Hunter claimed back-to-back quad doubles titles in 2003-2004.
