Young Canadians Receive Wildcards for Tevlin Challenger

November 13, 2009

Tennis Canada announced Friday the main draw and qualifying draw wildcards handed out for the $50,000 Tevlin Challenger taking place November 14-22 in Toronto. A total of 10 Canadians have received wildcard entry into the tournament, four into the main draw and six into the qualifying draw.

Veteran player Marie-Eve Pelletier (Repentigny, Quebec) will compete in the main draw along with juniors Elisabeth Abanda (Montreal), Gabriela Dabrowski (Ottawa) and Katarena Paliivets (Richmond Hill, Ontario). Pelletier, a doubles specialist currently ranked No. 66 on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Rankings, captured the doubles trophy at last year’s Tevlin Challenger while Dabrowski was the doubles champion in 2007 with compatriot Sharon Fichman (Toronto).

The four ladies will join an already strong contingent of Canadian players who earned spots in the main draw via their ranking inside the Top 200. Stephanie Dubois (Laval, Quebec), Fichman, Rebecca Marino (Vancouver) and Valerie Tetreault (Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec) bring the total number of Canadians to eight, which comprises at least one-quarter of the 32 competitors in the main draw.

Trying to join their fellow countrywomen in the big show are Elianne Douglas-Miron (Ottawa), Dominique Harmath (Toronto), Amy He (Burlington, Ontario), Marianne Jodoin (Varennes, Quebec), Carol Zhao (Richmond Hill, Ontario) and Solomiya Zinko (Etobicoke, Ontario) who have all been given wildcards into the qualifying draw. With the exception of Harmath, all of these girls are under the age of 17 and many will be getting their first taste of tennis on the ITF professional circuit.

Qualifying play begins Saturday morning at 10 a.m. and continues on Sunday with four spots in the main draw up for grabs. Main draw action begins Monday. Championship weekend at the Tevlin Challenger will be Web cast live via tenniscanada.com beginning with semifinal action on Saturday, November 21 at 11 a.m., followed by the singles final live on Sunday at 1 p.m. The event takes place at the Tennis Canada Centre of Excellence, the indoor facility located beside the world-class Rexall Centre in Toronto. Admission is free.

The Tevlin Challenger was founded by Tennis Matters benefactors Michael and Nicole Tevlin of Toronto as part of a generous high performance pledge. This year marks the fifth edition of the tournament and its second at the $50,000 prize money level.