Daniel Nestor and Canada's Male Singles Tennis Failure

Published by Toronto Mike on July 4, 2009 @ 19:32 in O Canada, Sports

TennisAs a teen, I played a lot of tennis. I used to follow tennis pretty closely, rooting for John McEnroe then Boris Becker. I always held out hope Canada could develop a top notch mens singles player. We never did.

Canada's inability to produce a single excellent men's singles tennis player is mind boggling. There have been a few decent female players, and at least a couple of excellent doubles players, but not one male player who could even upset their way into a semi-final match. The highest ranking Canadian male in singles play was Andrew Sznajder who somehow got ranked #46 in September 1989. You're forgiven if you've forgotten about Andrew Sznajder.

We've done okay with doubles, however. Grant Connell reached #1 back in 1995 and Daniel Nestor won Wimbledon earlier today with Nenad Zimonjić. Nestor has had a great career, winning 5 Grand Slam titles and an Olympic gold medal. Still, a decent singles competitor eludes us, although we came close...

I seem to recall a young Montreal-born player with promise. His name was Greg Rusedski, as I recall, but in 1995 he decided he could make more money as a Brit. He actually got to the US Open final in 1997, but he was wearing the wrong flag on his backpack.

Will there ever be an elite male singles tennis player from this country?

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8 Responses to "Daniel Nestor and Canada's Male Singles Tennis Failure"

elvis
July 4, 2009 / 22:51

It would be nice and all but does anyone care if we have a tennis player or not?

Toronto Mike
July 4, 2009 / 22:56

Think of it this way. Don't we get all hot and bothered when Mike Weir wins the Masters?

Don't we love it when Steve Nash wins the NBA MVP?

It would be nice to have at least one competitive tennis player on the mens side. Not vital, obviously, but it would give us a rooting interest.

Tai Slim
July 5, 2009 / 03:38

Apart from Andrew Sznajder & Daniel, there is not ionic figures in our singles team. It should be widely promoted to make some presence in the world Tennis.

CQ
July 5, 2009 / 09:35

Tennis has a "don't be a fag" image here.
That's similar to the way Young Canadian Hockey players all developed into frozen robots back during the 90s - just take a look at the overly stoic all-star CHL game introductions. In today's NHL more of the foreign-born players are celebrating and stickhandling like they were Bobby Orr.

Toronto Mike
July 5, 2009 / 10:37

Andrew Sznajder = iconic figure.

As if.

online dating advice
July 9, 2009 / 11:42

Yes Toronto mike you are very true Andrew Sznajder = iconic figure in Canadian Singles team.

Roshan
February 26, 2011 / 08:09

Despite that fact Canada has a couple of excellently hosted tournaments.

Junior Tennis Player
June 18, 2011 / 11:47

Tennis in Canada is VERY expensive. Igaurantee you if they made tennis affordable across Canada we would have some great Talent. However Tennis Canada only gives chances to few players who are able to afford it. Tennis in Canada is not affordable and i realized it is not a good sport to play. If your ranked outside top 500 your earning basically minimum wage. top 100 earns about 100k to 200k. and top 10 is where the money is. Wasting money and time is not worth it to become a profesional tennis player in Canada. the top 100 player in the nba, nfl ,mlb, nhl earns much more than the top 100 player in tennis. As a 16 year old make your son play soccer not tennis

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