Abanda and Nguyen Crowned U16 Champions

August 7, 2009

Elisabeth Abanda (Montreal) and Edward Nguyen (Ottawa) became national champions on Friday after winning the singles titles at the U16 Rogers Junior National Championships held at the Ontario Racquet Club in Mississauga, Ontario.

Abanda, the girls’ No. 2 seed, beat doubles teammate Elianne Douglas-Miron (Ottawa) 6-2, 6-2 to claim the trophy while Nguyen beat David Vierya (Mississauga, Ontario) 7-5, 2-5, 6-3. All four finalists are participants at the full-time National Training Centre (NTC) in Montreal.

“It’s a feather in the cap of all the NTC participants,” said national touring coach Ralph Platz. “It’s nice to see these players dominating at the tournament after watching them work hard day in and day out, giving their blood, sweat and tears.”

“It’s hard to play against someone you practice against every day,” said Abanda after beating Douglas-Miron. “I just tried to play my game, keep it simple and take it as just another match against a random opponent.”

Douglas-Miron had advanced to the final after beating Nikolette Budai in a tough, three-set match, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 on Thursday. She said Friday’s match was not her best performance.

“I don’t think I played my best tennis,” said Douglas-Miron. “I was tired from my matches yesterday and I tried my best, but she (Abanda) was too strong.”

In the boys’ final, Nguyen edged Vierya in a back-and-forth contest. After Nguyen won a tight first set, Vieyra stormed back to even the match and force his opponent to dig deep.

“I was getting nervous,” said Nguyen. “I was missing shots and wasn’t making him work. In the third set, I stepped it up and broke him in the first game. That swung the momentum.”

Vierya still took home plenty of hardware on Friday. He won the doubles title alongside Damien David (L’Assomption, Quebec) on Thursday, beating Nguyen and Roman Trkulja (Toronto) 6-3, 6-2. He was also presented with the tournament’s sportsmanship award.

“It would have meant more if I’d won because I’m still kind of down from singles,” said Vierya. “But it’s always nice to be recognized for good sportsmanship.”

In the girls’ doubles final, Abanda and Douglas-Miron were victorious over the top-seeded team of Solomiya Zinko (Concord, Ontario) and Erin Routliffe (Caledon, Ontario), winning in straight sets 6-2, 7-5.

“It was great,” said Douglas-Miron. “I’ve been in the finals a lot but never won so it was great to get my first doubles title at nationals.”

Both players are looking forward to a bright future in tennis, along with the opportunity to play at higher levels. Douglas-Miron said her goal is to raise her ITF ranking, while playing on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour and Junior Grand Slam events.

As for Abanda, she’s dreaming big.

“I want to be a Top 20 player on the WTA Tour by the time I’m 18 or 19,” she said. “It’s hard sometimes, missing high-school and training every day, but it’s worth it.”

Meanwhile, at the U12 Rogers Junior National Championships in Mont-Tremblant, Marianne Gareau was a straight-sets winner over Bianca Parsons, 6-3, 6-0 in the girls’ final. On the boys’ side, Dylan Bednarczyk beat Charles Cyrenne 6-4, 6-3 to claim the title without dropping a set in the tournamen