Friend's First Open Title

Riley Friend and Dilraj Phull 

Tournament Update  |  After reaching two finals last year and falling short of the titles, Riley Friend scored his first open tournament victory at the 84th Stanley Park Open. Following Dilraj Phull's first open title achievement at the Evergreen Cup tournament in May, Friend claimed his first open title at this popular summer tournament in Vancouver's Stanley Park. Participating in the under 18 singles event, Friend was unseeded but fought through four tough matches and coming from behind to win each of his battle.

Friend had fallen behind 2-5 in the first set of his first match before reeling off eleven straight games to win that match. He also lost the first set to Kasra Kamal and John Paul Yun before capturing the second and third sets to move himself into the finals. Facing the No. 2 seed Nemanja Asprovski, he again lost the first set and found himself behind throughout the second set. Asprovski served twice for the match in the second set at 5-4 and 6-5. Each time Friend broke his serve to stay level in the set. The second seed then moved up to a 4-1 lead in the tiebreak before Friend's mental toughness broke his opponent's spirit allowing Friend to snatch the second set tiebreak and move on to win the third set easily. Friend won 2-6, 7-6, 6-2.

Dilraj Phull followed up his first title victory in May with a semi-finals appearance in his under 14 singles event at the Stanley Park Open. Seeded 10th, he won his first match against Derek Tung. He progressed further by beating the number 5 seed Aram Noroosian 6-1, 6-0 and hammered the top seed Jack Foster 6-0, 7-6 in the quarter-finals. Phull was stopped by his doubles partner Jackson Carl Boone, seeded No. 4, in the semi-finals in three sets 5-7, 6-1, 6-2. 

After pulling off an upset in the under 14 doubles semi-finals against the top seed Jack Foster and Rylan Hastings 0-6, 6-4, 6-4, Phull and his partner Boone lost to the number 3 seeded team of Markus Marosits and Jas Sahota in the finals with a score of 6-4, 6-3.