GRANBY/STARNBERG, July 22, 2024 (Tennis Canada Press Release)
On Sunday, the Granby National Bank Championships came to a close, crowning its 2024 singles champions – American Maria Mateas and Bu Yunchaokete of China. Held at Tennis St-Luc in Granby, Quebec, from July 15 to 21, the tournament featured both an ITF World Tennis Tour W75 event and an ATP Challenger 75 tournament.
Maria Mateas (photo: Sarah-Jade Champagne)
In the women’s final, top-seeded Mateas faced 19-year-old Kayla Cross of London, Ontario. After claiming the first set, Mateas appeared to be on the brink of winning the match with opportunities to serve for the title in the 10th and 12th games, but Cross held her nerve and managed to break her on both occasions. However, in the tiebreak, it was the American who was able to stand her ground, clinching the match 6-3, 7-6(3).
Despite the loss, Cross made her first career final appearance of her young professional career, and she will reach a career-high ranking of world No. 487 on Monday thanks to her strong performance in Granby. A couple of other Canadians made noise in the singles event, with Carson Branstine reaching the quarter-finals and Stacey Fung making it all the way to the semi-finals, before bowing out to Cross.
Yunchaokete, the No. 6 seed in the ATP Challenger draw, defeated second-seeded Frenchman Terence Atmane 6-3, 6-7(7), 6-4 to claim the men’s title. The 22-year-old Chinese player had a match point in the semi-finals of the Winnipeg National Bank Challenger last week, before losing to eventual champion Benjamin Bonzi of France. Able to bounce back from this heartbreaking defeat, Yunchaokete went on to enjoy a tremendous week in Granby, capturing his second Challenger title of the season.
The winning moment 🙌
Bu Yunchaokete overcomes Atmane in a thrilling three set battle to lift the trophy in Granby!#ATPChallenger pic.twitter.com/l73jSNq82R
— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) July 21, 2024
Fruitful week for Canadians in doubles
Much to the delight of the local fans, there were plenty of Canadians to cheer for in the doubles competition throughout the week. The all-Canadian duo of Catherine Gagnon and Alexia Jacobs reached the semi-finals, as did Laval’s Bianca Jolie Fernandez and her Slovak partner Martina Okalova. On the men’s side, Canadians Joshua Lapadat and Justin Boulais teamed up and won three matches before falling to Ecuador’s Andres Andrade and American Mac Kiger 3-6, 6-3, 10-2 in the championship match.
To cap it off, for the first time since 2012 when Toronto’s Sharon Fichman and Marie-Ève Pelletier of Repentigny won the event in Granby, an all-Canadian women’s team took home the doubles title. This time it was Ariana Arseneault of Richmond Hill and Edmonton’s Mia Kupres who went all the way, defeating Tawain’s En-Shuo Liang and South Korea’s Sohyun Park 6-4, 2-6, 10-6 in Saturday’s final.
