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Odlum Brown Vancouver Open - 2009
Hollyburn Country Club, West Vancouver (August 1 - 9) -
Stephanie Dubois became the first Canadian woman to win the Odlum Brown VanOpen,
beating Sania Mirza
of India 1-6, 6-4, 6-4. Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus beat Belgium's Xavier Malisse, 6-4, 6-4, to take the Men's Singles title.
Marcos, the former world No. 8, is currently on the comeback trail after
battling injuries. He reached the Australian Open final and the
Wimbledon semi-final in 2006.
Photo 1:
Xavier Malisse, the former world top-20 and the winner of 2004 French
Open Doubles won a $50,000 Challenger event in
Granby, Que., earlier last week.
Photo 2: Sania Mirza, the former world
No. 28, is trying to build back her ranking following wrist surgery.
Photo 3: Rik De Voest, left, and his fellow South African, Kevin
Anderson, won the Men's Doubles by beating Kaes Vanthof of the U.S. and Ramon
Delgado of Praguay, 6-4, 6-4. It was the fourth straight year in
the final for Rik De Voest. Rik, the winner of the
2006 Men's
Singles title, lost this year in the first round of Singles to Kyu Tae Im, the top player in Korea, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Photo 4:
Twenty-year-old Philip Bester
of North Vancouver played the best tennis of his life this year to reach
the quarter-final, where he lost to Marcos Baghdatis, the
eventual winner, in a three-set thriller, 6-3, 5-7, 7-5. Next up
for Philip is the qualifying draw for the $750,000 ATP event in New
Haven, Conn., in a couple of weeks.
Photo 5:
On the look out, Rebecca Marino
of Vancouver and her mom. The 6'2" Rebecca made the quarter-finals here
again this year where she took Sania Mirza to three sets
before losing the match,7-6, 6-7, 6-4. Rebecca, now ranked
top-200 in the world, has been wild-carded into the qualifying draw for
the $2 million Rogers Cup which begins next week.
Photo 6:
American, Ryler
Deheart, left, and Taylor Dent. Seventeen-year-old Ryler
upset seed No. 2, Michael Berrer, in the first round 7-5, 6-2 but fell
to Taylor, 6-3, 6-3. Taylor Dent in turn lost to Xavier Malisse
in the quarter-finals, 6-3, 6-3.
Photo
7:
Tennis Fashion
Show during the Opening Ceremony.
Photo 8:
The Australian, Bernard Tomic, and Carsten Ball.
Sixteen-year-old Tomic lost in the Men's Qualifying Draw and 20-year-old
Ball in the first round of the Main Draw. Ball was born and raised in California, the scene of the ATP breakthrough that has earned the Australian Davis Cup player a career-high ranking of 145th.
Ball last week made the final of the $700,000 Los Angeles ATP main
tour event, where he lost to
2007 VanOpen finalist Sam Querrey.
Photo
9:
Katerina Boiko of Burnaby,
BC and her dad, Andre. Fourteen-year-old Katerina showed her potential by beating
No. 578 ranked, American Stacey Tan, in the first round of the Women's Qualifying Draw, 2-6, 6-4, 6-0. She then went on to lose to
No. 340 ranked Lena Litvak, in the second round.
Photo
10:
Peter Gerimsey
and Gord Smith were coordinating the ball-boys,
and there were hundreds of
them! Many other volunteers, as well, helped to make sure the tournament
would be a great success. . . Thank you!
More:
The women's final was all-American, Ahsha Rolle and Rizza Zalameda
defeating Madison Brengle and Lilia Osterloh, 6-2, 6-2.
The
British No. 2, Alex Bogdanovic, lost in the semis to Marcos Baghdatis,
3-6, 6-4, 6-3.
The players' line-up this year assured that attendance at the event
exceeded organizers' expectations. |
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