Rob Shaw should be arriving at the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris for the wheelchair tennis event full of confidence after a pair of titles on clay in July. In fact, he will arrive at Roland-Garros on an eight-match winning streak in singles.
He followed up his victory at the Berlin Open in July with the biggest singles title of his career at the Swiss Open in Geneva, an ITF 1 Series event.
Seeded third, Shaw did not drop a set on his way to the final where he defeated Fransico Cayulef of Chile in three sets to win his 24th career ITF singles title.
“It’s been almost 10 years, but I have finally won an ITF1 Tournament. I cannot thank my support team enough for keeping me game-ready for the past two weeks,” said Shaw after his victory in Geneva. “I was very familiar with my opponent today as we played each other last week in the finals. This week I thought more than any other match; I finally played closer to my potential. There were moments where I got too pushy, but I corrected things in the third set and kept my foot on the gas. It’s been an incredible run in Switzerland and a tournament I will never forget.”
Shaw also won the doubles in Geneva, although he and David Wagner only had to win their semifinal match as they had a first-round bye and got a walkover in the final. It was Shaw’s fifth ITF doubles title of the season and 28th overall.
He now heads to Paris for the Paralympics, where he will be the lone Canadian competing in the wheelchair tennis event, which gets underway on Aug. 30.
Winning in the Northwest
Joining Shaw in the ITF winner’s circle outside of Canada over the last month was Natalia Lanucha, who won the women’s singles title at an ITF event in Salem, Oregon, her second singles title of 2024.
The women’s singles event was a five-player round robin. Lanucha finished 4-0, only dropping one set. Canada accounted for the top two spots in the women’s singles, with Anne-Marie Dolinar finishing second. Her lone loss was to Lanucha.
Saint-Hyacinthe
The first of two stops on the ITF wheelchair tour in Canada over the last month came in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec at the end of July.
Canada’s Thomas Venos cleaned up at the event, winning the singles and doubles titles. He was the top seed in both and did not drop a set in either draw.
In singles, he only lost multiple games in a set twice in four matches and half of his sets were bagels. He had a double-bagel win in the semifinals against American Bryce Doody and then beat another American, Jason Keatseangsilp, 6-1, 6-3 in the final for his second ITF singles title of the year.
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Keatseangsilp beat Canadian Barry Henderson in the semifinals.
Venos teamed up with Keatseangsilp to win the doubles title, the BC native’s sixth of 2024, losing just five total games in the event and winning three sets 6-0. They defeated the all-Canadian team of Shawn Courchesne and Henderson in the final 6-1, 6-2.
Fabio Freitas of Brazil won the quad singles. It was a four-person round robin event with Canada’s Hisham Mohammad and Erduan Solak coming third and fourth respectively. There were no women’s events in Saint-Hyacinthe.
Windsor
In the first week of August, it was Windsor, Ontario’s turn to host a men’s ITF wheelchair event.
Once again, Venos had the best results among the Canadians, although this time he was unable to pick up a title. The 25-year-old reached the singles final but lost to top-seeded American Conner Stroud.
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Doubles was a three-team round robin, won by Stroud and Keatseangsilp. Venos partnered with fellow Canadian Patrick Levis and finished second. They beat the other all-American team of Adil Boutahli and Atif Moon but lost the de facto final against Stroud and Keatseangsilp.
