rapport TC

Strong Canadian Contingent For Gatineau National Bank
Challenger
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tennis-tourtalk.com/12696/strong-canadian-contingent-for-gatineau-national-bank-challenger
Gatineau Challenger (photo: Les Internationaux de tennis de
Gatineau)
GATINEAU, July 8, 2016
Tennis Canada announced Thursday the list of Canadian players who
have confirmed their participation in the Gatineau National Bank
Challenger. The tournament will be mixed for its third edition with the
staging of a $25,000 ITF women’s Challenger combined with a new
$75,000 ATP men’s Challenger. The event will be held from August 6-
14, 2016.
On the men’s side, Félix Auger-Aliassime (Montréal, QC), Frank
Dancevic (Nigara Falls, ON), Filip Peliwo (Vancouver, BC), and
Denis Shapovalov (Mississauga, ON) will all play. Dancevic has
enjoyed success in Quebec in the past, winning three titles in Granby and reaching the final in Drummondville last
year. The former world no. 65 recently reached the third round of the ATP event on grass in Nottingham after playing
his way through qualifying. Rising stars Auger-Aliassime and Shapovalov are both currently competing at
Wimbledon. Last month, Auger-Aliassime came within one point of being crowned junior French Open champion at
just 15 years of age. In 2015, he became the youngest player in history to qualify for the main draw of a Challenger
and in the process, became the first player born in the 2000s to hold an ATP ranking. A few months later, he
reached the quarter-finals of the Granby National Bank Challenger. For his part, Shapovalov took home top honours
at the junior Wimbledon warm up event in Roehampton just last week and he has already won three Futures titles in
2016, putting him at no. 374 in the world at only 17 years old.
On the women’s side, Françoise Abanda (Montréal, QC), Bianca Vanessa Andreescu (Mississauga, ON), and
Charlotte Robillard-Millette (Blainville, QC) will try and become the first Canadian champion in Gatineau. Abanda
came close during the inaugural edition of the tournament where she fell in the final to Stéphanie Foretz of France.
The 19-year-old Canadian is ranked no. 276 in the world and has won two ITF Challenger titles in her career,
including one this year in Mexico. Andreescu is also a former finalist in Gatineau having finished runner up last year
in what was her first professional tournament. Andreescu is returning from a foot injury that kept her off the court for
the past six months. For her part, 17-year-old Robillard-Millette achieved a career best junior ranking of no. 4 last
season and fell to Andreescu in the final of the National Bank Junior Tennis Open in Repentigny last summer.
“This is a great group of Canadians that will be playing on the courts at Parc de l’Île in Gatineau this summer,” said
Tournament Director Richard Quirion. “Fans will have the opportunity to watch our next generation of stars who are
making a name for themselves on the international tennis scene.”
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