With the pro season winding to a close, the world’s best juniors are set to take centre stage this week at the Eddie Herr International Junior Tennis Championships in Bradenton, Florida, a prestigious Grade 1 ITF event.     

Many of Canada’s most promising talent will test themselves against the top players in the U12, U14, U16 and U18 age divisions. Hopes are particularly high this year after a strong Canadian showing at the Grade 1 Yucatan World Cup in Mexico last week. Françoise Abanda (Montreal, QC) and Gabriela Dabrowski (Ottawa, ON) were singles finalists in the U14 and U18 girls’ categories, respectively. Unfortunately, both players were hampered by injuries in the championship matches and could not wrap up their remarkable weeks with wins. Furthermore, Elisabeth Abanda (Montreal, QC) and Elianne Douglas-Miron (Concord, ON) took home the U18 girls doubles crown thanks to a 2-6, 7-5, 10-8 victory over compatriot Katarena Paliivets (Richmond Hill, ON) and her American partner Noel Scott. Visit www.eddieherr.com for all of the latest news and results from the Eddie Herr International. 

Montreal’s Uniprix Stadium set to host international wheelchair event
Some elite wheelchair tennis players will be in Montreal this week for the International Wheelchair Tennis Championships, an ITF2 series event put on by Tennis Canada. In fact, five of the world’s Top 20 will be competing in the men’s draw including World No. 10 Satoshi Saida of Japan and World No. 11 Frederic Cattaneo of France. Meanwhile, Canada will be represented in the men’s, women’s and quad divisions with Yann Mathieu (Trois-Rivières, QC), Joel Dembe (Toronto, ON), Eric Gilbert (Montreal, QC), Cyndy McLean (Guelph, ON) and Adrian Dieleman (Toronto, ON) set to defend their country’s colours. The tournament begins Wednesday and will run until Sunday. Stay tuned to www.tenniscanada.com for all of the latest from the event.   

Pospisil wraps up season with another doubles title
An impressive fall season concluded in fitting fashion over the weekend for Vasek Pospisil (Vernon, BC). One of the hottest players on Tour, the 19-year-old finished his season by adding another doubles title to his tally after capturing top honours at the $35,000 ATP Challenger in Puebla, Mexico alongside his compatriot Adil Shamasdin (Toronto, ON) The pair defeated the Spanish team of Guillermo Olaso and Pere Riba 7-6(0), 6-0 in the final. Pospisil will finish 2009 ranked No. 340 on the South African Airways ATP singles rankings and No. 217 on the world doubles rankings. 

Nestor and Zimonjic lose No. 1 ranking to Bryan brothers
After a memorable 2009 campaign which saw them win 9 tournaments, including a successful title defense at Wimbledon, Daniel Nestor (Toronto, ON) and his Serbian partner Nenad Zimonjic came up just short in their bid to finish the year atop the world doubles rankings for a second consecutive year. The battle for No. 1 came down to the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London, England. After Nestor and Zimonjic were unable to qualify for the semifinals as the result of a 1-2 round robin record, Bob and Mike Bryan had to win the tournament to dislodge their arch-rivals from the top spot and the American brothers did just that. Still, Nestor became the first Canadian in history to surpass the $1 million mark in total prize money in one season as well as the first player in singles or doubles to capture all nine Masters Series events. He also leads all active players with 64 career titles.