Yann Mathieu from Trois Rivières, QC, had to concede defeat in Saturday’s final of the Windsor Classic, an ITF series III tournament and the first stop in 2011 on the Canadian Scotiabank tour. Losing 2-6 2-6 to Jon Rydberg (St Paul’s, Minnesota), Mathieu did not have the weapons to pose any serious threat to his opponent. « I am quite happy with reaching the final. That was the goal I set for myself. Clearly I would have liked to have been more solid on my return and try to reduce the unforced errors », said Mathieu after the match.
Rydberg, a former top 15 player with a current ITF ranking of 80, progressively took control of the match and applied tremendous pressure on Mathieu, both on the serve as well as the return, never leaving his opponent any room to breathe and a chance to develop his own game.
Rydberg went on to complete his successful weekend by winning the doubles final in a an all American affair. Together with his partner Zack Beaulieu (Maine), he beat Steve Welch (Dallas, TX) and Paul Moran (Chicago) in a tight match 4-6 5-7 10-3 (super tiebreaker)
Mathieu reached the final by beating fellow Canadian Joel Dembe (Toronto) in the semis by a score of 6-0 7-6. « Due to heavy work obligations, I didn't prepare as well as I should have for this particular tournament, however, I was really lucky to get a good draw to give myself a chance for the semis. I definitely need to work on my second serve, one of the weaker aspects of my game,” Dembe commented his loss to Mathieu.
Together with his partner Corey Blatchford from Saskatoon, SK, Dembe also reached the semi finals in doubles against the American formation Welch and Moran, where they were narrowly edged out in a 3rd set super tiebreaker by the narrowest of scores of 9-11.
Next stop for the wheelchair tennis caravan is The Cajun Open in Baton Rouge, Louisianna (March 23 – March 27) before moving on to Florida and Puerto Rico, the last stops on the spring tour. Team Canada then heads to World Team Cup in Pretoria, South Africa (April 25 – March 1st) for one of the season’s first highlights.
For further information or
question in regards to wheelchair tennis in Canada please contact Tennis Canada
at wheelchairtennisinfo@tenniscanada.com
