Airdrie’s Chris Simnett won the men’s 5.0 singles title at the Canada Day Classic at Calgary’s Mount Pleasant Tennis Club on July 3.
Simnett, the top seed in the tournament, defeated Calgary’s Sidney Yap 6-4, 6-2 in the championship match.
He defeated Valentin Varlam 6-0, 6-0 in the first round and took out Adam Le Dain 6-1, 6-3 in the quarter-finals. In the semifinals, Simnett defeated third-seed Bruce Graham of Calgary 6-3, 7-5. .
It was the first tournament win for Simnett since he moved to Airdrie in 2006.
“I played well,” said Simnett, 39, the president of the Airdrie and District Tennis Association. “My forehand is my biggest weapon and I used it to keep my opponents on the run all weekend.”
The semifinal was Simnett’s toughest match, as Graham is on the national over-50 team and competed at the world senior championships in New Zealand this past winter.
“Bruce is tough, he gets a lot of balls back in play and I had to work very hard to beat him,” said Simnett. “I served a bit better than him and that was the difference.”
In the final against Yap, who is just 14 years old, Simnett used his experience to keep the ball low and frustrate the big-hitting teenager.
Airdrie’s Nathan Tolley also competed in the tournament, but fell 6-4, 7-6(4) to Le Dain in the first round. Simnett and Tolley teamed up in the men’s 5.0 doubles, but fell 6-3, 3-2 (ret.) to the Calgary team of Jocelyn Savoie and Jeremy Rabbitte in the first round. They were forced to retire in the second set after Tolley suffered an arm injury.
Rookie tour hits city
The Rogers Rookie Tour event hit Airdrie’s East Lake courts on July 10, with 20 of the 23 players participating in the fun, non-elimination tournament, hailing from the city.
Jaiden Mattock of Airdrie won the U-10 title while Kalev Altosaar was second, Rahul Kumar third and Brady Esau finished fourth.
Justian Hogenkamp and Abhishek Sharma shared the second U-10 division crown while sisters Jasmine and Lilie Szucs were second.
The combined U-12/U-14 division was split into three five player round-robin divisions. Calgary’s Rahul Duggi went undefeated to win the first division, while Airdrie’s Paul Riek was second and 10-year-old Airdronians Noah Esajobar and Connor Wilde finished third and fourth respectively.
Tom Kewall of Airdrie edged out Nathaniel Roussel by a single point to win the second division in the U12/U14 category. Airdrie’s Daniel Ratcliffe was third while Cremona’s Sava Yewchuk finished fourth and Airdrie’s Paxton Rowsell was fifth.
Nicholas Mattock of Airdrie won the third U12/U14 division.
The ADTA will host its second Rogers Rookie Tour tournament of the season Aug. 21, also at East Lake Park. The tournaments are non-elimination events designed for beginning players with limited tournament experience.
Contact the ADTA at [email protected] for more information.
