Roy, Kassautzki Finish at the Top of University Championships

August 18, 2007

The College and University Championships wrapped up Saturday at the Rexall Centre after the staging of a successful inaugural event.

Vancouver’s Graeme Kassautzki claimed supremacy in the men’s draw while Melanie Roy of Montreal was crowned the winner on the women’s side.

Kassautzki, a student at the University of New Mexico, defeated Quebec’s Keziel Juneau 6-3, 6-2 in the semifinals and took to the courts a few hours later to get the best of fellow B.C. native Kamil Pajkowski 6-3, 6-2 in the championship. Kassautzki was a gold medalist at the 2005 Canada Summer Games and also a former U16 outdoor national champion in singles and doubles as a junior.

Meanwhile, Roy played six sets of high quality tennis in order to get her hands on the coveted trophy. She began her route to the title with a dramatic three set win over top-seeded Torontonian Katarina Zoricic 7-5, 3-6, 7-6(2) and proceeded to eliminate Vancouver’s Monika Neveklovska 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 in the title bout. Roy will be starting a degree at the Université de Montréal after completing a 4-year career at the NCAA level. She also teaches at her local tennis club and relished the opportunity to compete in the tournament on one of the sport’s grandest stages.

“This has been a great experience, these kinds of events don’t happen enough for us so I think that Tennis Canada has done a great thing and hopefully it will continue for a long time,” Roy said.

Playing on Court 1 of the Rexall Centre during the Rogers Cup presented by American Express, players competing in the College and University Championships were given the royal treatment throughout their stay in Toronto, just as their Sony Ericsson WTA Tour counterparts playing in the coinciding prestigious Tier I stop.  

The event brought together 16 of the brightest college stars in the country who engaged in two days of world class tennis which concluded appropriately Saturday night with a presentation on centre court acknowledging the winners and giving them their much deserved moment in the spotlight, a place they will likely be for many years to come.