Sports
July 24, 2008 11:08 PM
By: Mike Hayakawa
Peter Polansky’s stay at the 2008 Rogers Cup tennis competition was brief.
Playing his first-round match Tuesday at the Rexall Centre at York University, the 20-year-old Thornhill resident fell 2-0 (6-2, 6-4) to Jesse Levine of the United States.
Given one of four wildcard entries into the tournament, Polansky was 276th in the latest ATP rankings while Levine was 123rd and had won a qualifier.
Earlier this month, Polansky took part in a doubles competition with Philip Bester of North Vancouver at the $50,000 Granby National Bank Challenger at the St-Luc Tennis Club in Granby, Que., and pulled off an upset by winning the title.
Advancing to the main draw thanks to a wildcard given to them by Tennis Canada, Polansky, 20, and Bester, 19, triumphed in the final over the second-seeded U.S. tandem of Alberto Francis, 257th in the Stanford ATP doubles rankings, and Nicholas Monroe, ranked 302nd, 2-1 (2-6, 6-1 and 10-5) in a marathon that necessitated just over two hours of play.
Earlier in the event, Polansky and Bester, ranked 639th and 572nd respectively in doubles, had eliminated another seeded pair in fourth-seeded Andrea Stoppini and Alessandro Da Col of Italy 2-0 (6-1, 6-4) in the second round.
For Polansky, a member of Canada’s Davis Cup team, the victory marked his first professional doubles title after claiming five singles International Tennis Federation crowns.