2024 Under 18 Fischer Outdoor National Championships Preview

Photo : Peter Figura

Outdoor Junior Nationals month gets underway this week beginning with the 2024 Under 18 Fischer Outdoor National Championships.

Up-and-coming Canadian tennis players will showcase their skills at the Ontario Racquet Club in Mississauga, Ont., with the finals set to share the court with the WTA’s best at Sobeys Stadium in Toronto on Aug. 11.

Both the boys’ and girls’ tournaments are 64-player elimination draws with six rounds. Defeated players are slotted into a 32-player consolation bracket.

Qualification for the U18s began on Sunday and will continue on Monday and Tuesday.

Boys’ Draw

Canada’s top-ranked junior boys’ player, and two-time Junior National Championship winner, Nicolas Arseneault will not be in the field for the U18’s after receiving the final qualifying wild card spot for the National Bank Open in Montreal. It will be his first appearance at the NBO.

Without Arseneault in the field, his twin brother and doubles partner, Mikael, will be one of the favourites to emerge from the boys’ draw, entering the tournament as the top seed. The Richmond Hill, Ont., native reached the semifinals at the 2024 Fischer Indoor Nationals and the quarter-finals of the 2023 Fischer Outdoor Nationals but fell to his brother on both occasions.

Adam Faragcao enters the tournament as the second seed. The 16-year-old is a two-time National Champion, claiming the Doubles title at the U18 Outdoor Nationals alongside partner Stéphane Pierre-Jo Kamendjé, as well as the singles title at the U16 Indoor National Championship in 2023. He reached the semifinal at the U18’s last year as a 15-year-old and lost 6-3, 6-1 to Junghee You.

Other contenders in the boys’ draw include 2024 U16 Indoor National runner-up Felix Roussel and Dani Szabo, who won the 2024 Yonex Under 18 Junior Closed Outdoor Provincial Championships in July.

Girls’ Draw

Defending U18 National Outdoor Champion Clemence Mercier returns to the Ontario Racquet Club looking to win the tournament for the second straight year. The 16-year-old was a surprise winner of the Under-18s in 2023, claiming the singles championship as an unseeded entrant, defeating third seed Eliana Kook and top seed Naomi Xu en route to the title. The Quebec native was also on the Junior Billie Jean King Cup squad that qualified for the finals in April.

The third-seeded Mercier enters 2024 as one of the favourites after defeating Brooke Feth 6-1, 6-4 to win the 2024 Under 16 Fischer Indoor National Championships in March.

Toronto native Scarlett Nicholson enters the tournament as the No. 1 seed. The sixth-ranked Canadian Junior player finished as the runner-up at the 2022 Indoor Nationals, losing to Anna-Raphaëlle Serghi in the final. Nicholson recently completed her freshman year at Georgia Tech. She compiled a 12-9 singles record and was named to the All-ACC Academic Team. Nicholson is a four-time Canadian National Champion – twice as a U12 doubles champion and twice in singles competition (U12 and U14).

Anna Tabunshchyk is the tournament’s second seed as she looks to build on a quarter-final appearance at the Under-18 Indoor Championships in April. The 16-year-old has reached the semifinals in five of her past six ITF tournaments, including victories at J60 events at Niagara on the Lake, Ont., and Ile des Soeurs, Que.

Written By

Jonathan Chan