Latest Canadian Davis Cup Workforce beginner Liam Draxl is the highest seed this week because the ITF circuit returns to Canada for the primary time since March for an M25 occasion in Laval.
It’s the first skilled males’s occasion of the yr held in Canada, not together with the February Davis Cup tie the place Draxl was part of Workforce Canada offered by Sobeys for the primary time, and the primary professional occasion because the girls performed in Montreal in March.
Draxl has an enchanting first-round conflict towards countryman Keegan Rice, at the moment the No. 2 ranked Canadian junior. The 18-year-old has begun taking part in extra males’s ITF occasions moderately than juniors as he seems to make the transition to the professionals.
General, there are 13 Canadian males within the 32-player draw. Together with the top-seeded Draxl, Justin Boulais is seeded sixth. Boulais lately completed the NCAA season because the No. 2 Canadian man in singles. He additionally has an all-Canadian first-rounder, taking over Juan Carlos Aguilar. Boulais may meet Draxl within the quarter-finals.
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Taha Baadi, the highest Canadian man within the NCAA singles rating at season’s finish, took a wildcard into Laval and can play Justin Roberts of The Bahamas within the first spherical.
4 different Canadians who ended the college yr within the NCAA rankings are competing in Laval: Joshua Lapadat (who was the No. 1 Canadian doubles participant), Cleeve Harper (who reached the doubles semifinals on the particular person championships), Duncan Chan (who performed for nationwide champions TCU), and Alvin Tudorica.
Harper, Chan, and Tudorica all got here by qualifying to enter the primary draw. Harper’s doubles accomplice from the College of Texas, American Eliot Spizzirri, is the seventh seed.
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Lapadat opens towards No. 2 seed Clement Chidekh of France.
Rice isn’t the one Canadian teenager competing in Laval. Latest ITF J60 Ile des Soeurs champion Mikael Arseneault certified for the primary draw and shall be taking part in his first professional occasion of the yr. Arseneault has reached the ultimate in his final three ITF junior occasions.
On prime of the Draxl-Rice and Boulais-Aguilar clashes, there may be additionally an all-Canadian first-round match between Chan and Sasha Rozin, with the winner dealing with both Lapadat or Chidekh.
The occasion will run this week, with the finals on Sunday, July 7.
