With the Odlum Brown Tennis Championship finishing this past weekend, I received the following press release from the Odlum Brown Vanopen and wanted to share with everyone.
Please make sure to attend this event next summer for some additional exciting tennis held at the Hollyburn Country Club.
Women’s Singles
Maryna Zanevska’s official WTA bio lists her favourite cites as New York, Barcelona, her birthplace of Odessa, Ukraine – and Vancouver.
But after Sunday’s final at the Odlum Brown VanOpen, Vancouver might just be her most favourite place.
The 23-year-old beat eighth seed Danka Kovinic of Montenegro 5-7, 6-1, 6-3 to add her name to the list of champions that includes Maria Sharapova, Johanna Konta, Aleksandra Wozniak and more.
“I’m super happy right now, if someone had told me before the tournament that I was going to win it, I would have said, ‘That’s a good joke!’” said Zanevska, who’s ranked World No. 128.
The Odlum Brown VanOpen is her first singles title win since the $50,000 ITF Joue-Les-Tours event last October.
“Thank you to the people who make this tournament possible, all the sponsors, it’s a really great atmosphere here to play.
It’s always more fun to play when such a big crowd is cheering for you.
I really hope I can come back again next year because it’s really an amazing place,” said Zanevska, who won the Odlum Brown VanOpen Women’s Doubles title in 2013 along side Canada’s Sharon Fichman.
For the 22-year-old Kovinic, it’s her third final appearance of the summer after finishing runner-up at a $50,000 event in Barcelona in June and a $100,000 event in Budapest in July.
Men’s
Cedrik-Marcel Stebe was on the sidelines for close to three years due to injuries, but after claiming his second ATP Challenger Tour title of the year at the Odlum Brown VanOpen on Sunday, he appears poised to become a top 100 ranked player once again. Stebe was ranked as high as World No. 71 in 2012 before the injury bug struck, including hip surgery in 2013.
The 26-year-old from Germany put in a dominating performance to knock off Aussie Jordan Thompson 6-0, 6-1 in 54 minutes. It’s the second fastest ATP Challenger Final of the year.
“It feels unreal. I haven’t had a short final like this before and I was just trying to play my best tennis. He’s a really good player and I was trying to be tough in each situation. Thankfully he had some problems, he was struggling a little bit, and I was able to take advantage of it,” he described.
Stebe won his first Challenger title in four years in June in Slovakia after reaching his first ATP World Tour quarterfinal in five years in Switzerland a few weeks prior.
His win at the Odlum Brown VanOpen should move his ATP rankings to around World No. 105.
“This is one of the top matches I’ve had – maybe not the best one – but still a very good one, I’m really happy with my performance. I just want to keep it up and hopefully win some more matches next week in New York at the US Open.”
