The qualifiers are complete at the 2024 Calgary National Bank Challenger
Canada’s Benjamin George made his way through qualifying Tuesday with a 7-6 (6), 2-6, 6-4 victory over compatriot Nicolas Arsenault at the OSTEN & VICTOR Alberta Tennis Centre.
George now heads to the tourney’s main draw, where the Ontarian joins fellow Canucks Vasek Pospisil, Liam Draxl, Justin Boulais, Cleeve Harper — of Calgary — and Alexis Galarneau, who has already scored a 6-4, 6-3 win over Romania’s Gabi Adrian Boitan in main-draw action.
On the women’s side, no Canadians made it through the qualifier to join the main draw, which includes Canucks Carson Branstine, Cadence Brace, Stacey Fung, Mia Kupres, Kayla Cross, Rebecca Marino and Alexia Jacobs, of Calgary. Canadian Isabelle Boulais was knocked out of the competition Tuesday with a main-draw loss — 6-2, 6-3 — to Brace.
A trio of Canadians are done, as well, in women’s doubles action. Sophie Stanton and Gabriella Vannessa Lindgren fell to Americans Anna Rogers and Jessica Failla 6-2, 6-1, and Raphaelle Lacasse and Romanian partner Gabriela Lee were knocked out by the team of Switzerland’s Jenny Duerst and Croatia’s Lucija Ciric Bagaric 7-6(2), 1-6, 11-9.
National Sport School graduate Hailey Murphy added to the Calgary contingent at The Challenger to help showcase the city’s homegrown talent on the national stage. But she failed to make it through qualifying the last few days.
The Challenger, which runs through Sunday at the ATC, is currently the largest international tennis tournament in Canada outside of the National Bank Open, which is comprised of the ATP Masters 1000 and WTA 1000 events. The Challenger features many of the best up-and-coming and established stars on the ATP Tour and WTA World Tour.
— Postmedia Calgary