The Canadian national team failed to repeat its 2023 second-place finish, failing to advance to the knockout rounds of the ITF World Junior Tennis Finals in Prostejov, Czech Republic this week.

Canada would finish the event in 15th place out of 16 teams.

The United States defeated Brazil 2-0 in the boys’ final to win their seventh ITF Junior World Tennis Final and first since 2019.

Captain Phillippe Courteau led the Canadian team of Callum MacKinnon, Julian Mahdavi and Luca Vicol into the clay court event, where they would compete in a round robin against Great Britain, Japan and the Netherlands.

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Canada opened the tournament on Monday against fifth-seeded Japan, but lost all three games.

MacKinnon, the 2024 U14 Fischer Indoor Champion, started his first match strong, winning the first set 6-0 against Takahiro Kawaguchi. However, the Toronto, Ontario native could not maintain that momentum throughout the match, losing the next two sets 0-6, 7-5, 6-0.

Mahdavi also failed to win his first singles match, losing 4-6, 2-2 to Shintaro Ogaki in the second set. Ogaki and partner Kango Endoh helped Japan to victory with a 6-0, 6-1 doubles win over Mahdavi and British Columbia indoor provincial champion Luca Vicol.

The Canadians were again swept off the court, losing 0-2 to third-seeded Great Britain. Mahdavi lost his second singles match of the event 6-0, 6-0 to Scott Watson, while MacKinnon lost 6-1, 1-6, 6-1 to Eric Lorimer to clinch group play for the Brits. MacKinnon and Vicol were unable to win their doubles match, losing 6-3, 7-5 to Watson and Niall Pickerd-Barua.

Canada finished the round robin tournament with a 2-1 victory over the Netherlands. MacKinnon earned Canada’s first singles victory of the tournament, defeating Stan Put 1-6, 6-1, 6-1. He later teamed with Vicol to win the first doubles match of the tournament, 7-6 (5), 2-6 (10-8) against Ivan Van Ruiten and Laurens Drijver.

Despite the victory, Canada finished third in Group C behind Great Britain and Japan.

The Canadians made it to the consolation round, where they lost 2-1 to Morocco, but finished the tournament with a win, defeating Tunisia 2-1 in their final game of the tournament.

MacKinnon performed strongly in the tournament, winning three of his five singles matches. He was the only member of Team Canada to win a singles match during the entire event.

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