3 Gold + 2 Silver

Coquitlam Junior Open Tennis Championship  |  Finally we made it through all the rain and squeeging the tennis courts countless of times, and at the end of it more than 200 matches were completed at this year Coquitlam Junior Open. The tournament was finally completed on Saturday, September 6 when the final match was played. Entries have increased by more than 24% over last year's Junior Open, resulting in the addition of the boys' under-12 doubles event at the last minute.

Our club juniors did well on home ground. This tournament was Martin Walenczykiewciz's swan song. This 18 year old made his own story book ending by winning the boys' challenger under-18 singles event. Making up for a disappointing grass court tournament in Duncan, this win was a fantastic way to end his junior career. Walenczykiewicz, the second seed earned his second trophy of the year by defeating the number one seed Pavel Kozhevnikov with a score of 6-1, 6-3. Another of our club junior, Ilya Tihanenoks of Port Moody, made it to the quarter-finals of the boys' champs under-18 singles and also the semi-final of the boys' challenger under 18 singles event. In the former, he was beaten by the number two seeded player Andrew Slater of Vancouver. In the Challenger event, he lost to the number one seed Kozhevnikov. Walenczykiewicz and Tihanenoks teamed up to contest in the boys' champs under-18 doubles event. After winning their first match easily, they could not overcome the team of Willson Cross and Ian Slater. The score was 7-6, 3-6, and 13-11 in the third set super tie-breaker.

In the boys' champs under-14 single event, our own Alexander Baumann, won his first round match in a tight three-setter, by winning a pair of tie-breakers in almost three hours. With barely 30 minutes of rest, he played his next match and lost to the third seed, Daniel Dziamaaga, 6-1, 6-2. Baumann also contested in the boys' challenger under-16 singles event. After finishing a hard fought match against Steven Shim in 3 sets in the round of 16, he was stopped in the quarterfinal by Britain's Benedict Rudgley. He narrowly lost in a score of 8-6 in a pro-set format. Alexander's sister, Stefanie had a much better result. In her girls' champs under-18 doubles, she and her partner Alexandra Sigouin of Vancouver won the finals beating the team of Harjit Kaur Gosal of Vancouver and Ella Socal of Anmore 6-2, 7-5. 17 year old Stefanie Baumann also won the girls' challenger under-18 singles event.

In the boys' challenger under-14 singles, Mark Linott surprised everyone by reaching the finals of the event. He finally faced his match when the number two seeded player Benjamin Sigouin beat him in straight sets. Linott had earlier beaten Xiuneng Wang, Ryan Sandrin, and Dominik Wrona to reach his first finals. Also in the same event, Ryan Sandrin won his first round match beating Jonathan He 3-6, 6-4, 10-2. He eventually lost to fellow club-mate Mark Linott in the quarter-finals. Sandrin did better in his doubles event. Partnering with Jedi Tetik, a school mate, they reach the semi-finals in the boys' challenger under-14 event. They were beaten by the number two seeded team of Daniel Foxcroft and Benjamin Sigouin.

Other club junior results: Rui Wang lost to Matthew Findlay of Vancouver in his first match of the boys' champs under-14 singles. In the boys' challenger under-16 single first round matches, Ivan Leonov lost to Kamil Tabaka of Coquitlam, Peter Hu went down to Spencer Rose of Vancouver 6-2, 6-2, and Raymond Kang was defeated by Daniel Dziamaga. Claudia Longauer did not make it to the second round of the girls' challenger under-16 singles event, losing to Kerstin Butzelaar 6-4, 6-2.