Tennis Canada introduced on Tuesday its recipients of the 2024 Tennis Canada Excellence Awards, which included a number of wins for Gabriela Dabrowski and Félix Auger-Aliassime, who each acquired the excellence of Participant of the 12 months, in addition to Girls’s Doubles Participant of the 12 months and Males’s Singles Participant of the 12 months, respectively.
2024 TENNIS CANADA EXCELLENCE AWARDS
“We wish to prolong our heartfelt congratulations to the recipients of the 2024 Tennis Canada Excellence Awards,” stated Gavin Ziv, Chief Govt Officer of Tennis Canada. “Over the previous few years, Canada has solidified its place as a number one tennis nation, and this may not be attainable with out the achievements of Canadian gamers on the worldwide stage. Gaby [Dabrowski] and Félix [Auger-Aliassime] medalling on the Olympics, Gaby turning into the primary Canadian to win the WTA Finals, Frédérique [Bérubé Perron] qualifying for Canada’s first-ever junior wheelchair tennis Grand Slam, and the unimaginable accomplishments and progress of the likes of Leylah Annie [Fernandez], Marina [Stakusic], and Gabriel [Diallo] are only a few of the various examples I can identify from this season. It’s been a pleasure to look at our athletes attain new milestones, and I can’t wait to see what 2025 has in retailer. Congratulations as soon as once more to this 12 months’s award winners, the influence you’ve all had on the visibility and development of Canadian tennis is really outstanding, and we hope your ongoing success continues to place racquets in folks’s fingers.”
HISTORIC SEASONS FOR DABROWSKI AND AUGER-ALIASSIME
For the primary time in her profession, Dabrowski, the world No. 3 in doubles, takes residence the Girls’s Participant of the 12 months award in what was a season to recollect. Contemporary from profitable the US Open in 2023, her maiden Grand Slam girls’s doubles title, the Ottawa native began her 2024 marketing campaign with a semifinal look on the Australian Open alongside companion Erin Routliffe.
Later within the 12 months, the duo completed runners-up at Wimbledon in two WTA 1000 tournaments – the Miami Open offered by Itaú and the Nationwide Financial institution Open offered by Rogers. They concluded their season by claiming the WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, marking the primary time a Canadian had been topped on the year-end competitors.
The history-breaking season didn’t finish there, as Dabrowski teamed up with Auger-Aliassime to clinch the bronze medal in blended doubles on the 2024 Paris Olympic Video games, Canada’s first Olympic tennis medal in 24 years. Auger-Aliassime went on to complete fourth in males’s singles, the most effective consequence ever achieved by a Canadian on this occasion.
On the ATP circuit, the Montrealer, who will end his sixth season ranked inside the highest 30 (No. 29), reached his first ATP 1000 last on the Mutua Madrid Open in April. It was the primary time since 2020, when Milos Raonic superior to the Cincinnati Open last, {that a} Canadian reached the championship match of a 1000-level occasion in males’s singles. That is Auger-Aliassime’s fourth Males’s Participant of the 12 months award.
Dabrowski’s phenomenal season additionally earned her a twelfth consecutive Girls’s Doubles Participant of the 12 months award, whereas Auger-Aliassime provides a fourth Males’s Singles Participant of the 12 months award to his checklist of accolades.
FERNANDEZ, STAKUSIC, DIALLO, AND DRAXL MAKE WAVES IN 2024
Fernandez, Canada’s top-ranked singles participant on the ladies’s aspect (No. 31), collects her fifth consecutive Girls’s Singles Participant of the 12 months award. The 22-year-old reached the sixth last of her profession in June on the Rothesay Worldwide in Eastbourne, Nice Britain. She additionally had two WTA 1000 quarter-final finishes on the Qatar TotalEnergies Open and Cincinnati Open. Representing Canada on the Olympic Video games, Fernandez achieved her finest Olympic consequence up to now by reaching the third spherical in singles.
Having fun with a breakout season and receiving her second Girls’s Most Improved Participant of the 12 months award is world No. 125 Stakusic. After spending nearly all of 2023 on the ITF World Tennis Tour, the 20-year-old opened her season qualifying for the primary draw of the Cymbiotika San Diego Open, a WTA 500 occasion. In the summertime, she certified for her first Grand Slam principal draw at Wimbledon, then went on to win a WTA 1000 first-round match on the Nationwide Financial institution Open. To cap off her season, Stakusic claimed her largest profession title on the WTA 125 Abierto Tampico.
Additionally receiving a second Most Improved Participant of the 12 months award is world No. 87 Diallo. The 23-year-old Montrealer performed the hero at first of the season, profitable each of his matches on the Davis Cup Qualifiers in his hometown to ship Canada to the Group Stage of the Davis Cup Finals. In Might, Diallo superior to his first Grand Slam principal draw at Roland-Garros, earlier than repeating the feat on the US Open, the place he turned heads by reaching the third spherical as a qualifier. His stellar season included a title on the Chicago Males’s Challenger and a second-place end on the ATP 250 occasion in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Newmarket’s Draxl completed the 12 months because the highest-ranked participant on the boys’s doubles circuit (No. 132), profitable 5 ATP Challenger titles and one on the ITF M25 occasion in Edmonton, Alberta. He’ll head into the 2025 season on an eight-match profitable streak in doubles, having gained his final two tournaments in Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo, Mexico. The 23-year-old additionally took residence some {hardware} in singles in 2024, profitable ITF M25 titles in Edmonton and Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures, Quebec, and an M15 title in Huamantla, Mexico.
In juniors, Lagaev and Arseneault – No. 54 and No. 84 of their respective junior rankings – had spectacular seasons on each the junior {and professional} circuits. Lagaev, 16, gained two J200 titles on the juniors’ aspect and reached her first skilled last on the ITF W15 occasion in Antalya, Turkey. She held a report of 5-2 when representing Canada on the junior Billie Jean King Cup. Arseneault, 17, additionally gained two titles on the junior circuit on the J100 occasions in Quebec Metropolis, Quebec and Burlington, Ontario. On the boys’s aspect, he performed in the primary attracts of the Drummondville and Edmonton Nationwide Financial institution Challengers, in addition to within the qualifying spherical of the Nationwide Financial institution Open.
WHEELCHAIR TENNIS AWARDS
Moreover, Shaw, the present world No. 7 within the quad division, acquired the Wheelchair Tennis Participant of the 12 months award. The Ontario native loved one other profitable 12 months, qualifying for Grand Slam occasions on the Australian Open and Roland-Garros. He additionally reached the quarter-finals in quad singles on the 2024 Paralympic Video games. Shaw completed the 12 months with 5 doubles titles and two singles titles, together with one at an ITF 1 sequence competitors, which marked the most important singles title of his profession.
The Most Improved Wheelchair Tennis Participant of the 12 months award went to Bérubé Perron, the 18-year-old Montrealer ranked seventh in juniors and sixty fifth within the girls’s rankings, an 89-place bounce from her finest rating in 2023. This season, she gained three ITF titles (one singles, two doubles), the ladies’s singles and juniors’ titles on the Birmingham Nationwide Wheelchair Tennis Championships, and certified for the US Open, turning into the primary Canadian wheelchair junior participant to perform the feat.
