Photo Credit: ITF Images via Dubreuil/Kopatsch/Zimmer
Team Canada could not replicate its second-place finish from 2023, failing to make it to the knockout stage at the ITF World Junior Tennis Finals this week in Prostejov, Czechia.
Canada would finish the event 15th out of 16 teams.
The United States defeated Brazil 2-0 in the boys’ final to win their seventh ITF World Junior Tennis Final and first since 2019.
Captain Phillippe Courteau led the Canadian team of Callum MacKinnon, Julian Mahdavi, and Luca Vicol into the clay court event where they would take on Great Britain, Japan, and the Netherlands in the round-robin.
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Canada played the fifth-seeded Japanese team to open the tournament on Monday but lost all three matches in the fixture.
MacKinnon, the 2024 Under 14 Fischer Indoor National Champion, started strong in his first match, taking the first set 6-0 from Takahiro Kawaguchi. However, the Toronto, Ont., native could not maintain that momentum through the match, dropping the next two sets to fall 0-6, 7-5, 6-0.
Mahdavi was also unable to win his opening singles match as fell 6-4, 6-4 to Shintaro Ogaki. Ogaki and partner Kango Endoh helped Japan clinch the sweep of the fixture with a 6-0, 6-1 doubles win over Mahdavi and British Columbia Indoor Provincial Champion, Luca Vicol.
The Canadians would once again get swept and fall to 0-2 at the hands of No. 3 seed Great Britain. Mahdavi dropped his second singles match of the event 6-0, 6-0 to Scott Watson, while MacKinnon fell to Eric Lorimer 6-1, 1-6, 6-1 to clinch the group match for the Brits. MacKinnon and Vicol were unable to salvage a victory in their doubles match, losing to Watson and Niall Pickerd-Barua 6-3, 7-5.
Canada would finish the round-robin with a 2-1 win over the Netherlands. MacKinnon earned Canada’s first singles win of the tournament, defeating Stan Put 1-6, 6-1, 6-1. He would later team with Vicol to take their first doubles match of the tournament 7-6 (5), 2-6 [10-8] over Ivan Van Ruiten and Laurens Drijver.
Despite the victory, Canada finished third in Group C behind Great Britain and Japan.
The Canadians would move into the consolation bracket where they would lose 2-1 to Morrocco before finishing the tournament on a winning note, defeating Tunisia 2-1 in their final tournament matchup.
MacKinnon had a strong showing in the tournament, winning four of his six singles matches. He was the only member of Team Canada to win a singles match throughout the event.
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