Congratulations to Nikki Todd, Robin Clarke, Georgia Baldwin and James Flynn!
A high octane November and December period once again yielded more world class results for Ontario athletes our as our recipients all achieved both domestic and international results to close out 2017.
On the female side, our adopted Saskatchewan native Nikki Todd accomplished the rare double-double by winning the Mayfair Lakeshore Ontario Senior Closed AND the Slaight Music/Ridley Windows and Doors Ontario Doubles Championships with partner Steph Hewitt only two weeks apart in November. Sandwiched in between she captured the 2018 Simon Warder Memorial 5k PSA event in Sarnia and then went on to win the prestigious Briggs Cup Doubles Championships in NYC. Nikki reached a career high of 51 on the professional singles circuit and has now cemented herself as one of the top doubles players on the planet. Wow! Honorable mentions this period go to rookie sensation Heather McLachlan of Brock who ran up a 7-0 record in the Jesters University League at the #1 position and Micaala Seth who was our Ontario Closed runner-up and also made the quarterfinals of the Simon Warder.
Robin Clarke of Ottawa and now the squash professional at the Cricket Club also reminded us that we have some of the very best male doubles squash players in the world residing in our province. Robin captured the Slaight Music/Ridley Windows and Doors Ontario Doubles Championships with partner Ryan Herden and then returned to the SDA professional tour after a hiatus to narrowly lose in the semifinals 15-14 in the 5th to the #1 team in the world of Damian Mudge and Manek Mathur at the Jim Bentley Cup in Toronto and then winning the Boston event with partner and Ontario resident Scott Arnold who is currently an amazing #3 in the world! Robin’s world ranking has now gone from 49 to 19 in two months and combined with the provincial championship, he is our November-December player of the month. Honorable mentions this period go to Albert Shoihet, our 2018 Mayfair Lakeshore Ontario Closed Men’s Champion and U of T Varsity Blues #1 Sam Burley who went 9-0 in Jesters University League play.
On the female side, incumbent BK Player of the Month Iman Shaheen of Ottawa had another incredible period of performance but the recipient for November and December is newcomer Georgia Baldwin of the Toronto Lawn Tennis Club, who won her first ever provincial championships at the BMO Nesbitt Burns Ontario Junior Closes in the U11 category. Georgia followed this up by winning Jesters Harrow Silver #3 and #4 in the U13 categories and she also traveled as part of the provincial squad to the US Junior Open at Yale University, making the 3rd round along with a strong U11 squad of herself, Maya Askari and Keira Hickox. Iman Shaheen continued her remarkable run of excellence with her first provincial titles in the U13 division in Vaughan, a second place finish at the Canadian Junior Open at White Oaks and a captivating run at the US Junior Open, where she finished 3rd in one of the largest and toughest draws in the world, proving that she will be an international player for Canada for years to come.
James Flynn becomes our only two-time BK Player of the Month Award Winner as he repeats his November-December performance of 2016, having strong runs at the Ontario’s, Canadians and US Opens. James wins the Boys U19 BMO Nesbitt Burns Ontario Closed Title and then finishes 3rd place at the Canadian Junior Open in a strong field and goes on to post a 5-2 record en route to a 10th place US Junior Open finish, all while in his down year as a young 17 year old. James will join long-time teammate George Crowne (Harvard) as an NCAA star in 2018 at Penn University and has continued to raise the level for our extremely talented and successful Ontario U19 group. Honorable mention this month goes to U15 Provincial Champion Amin Khan of Windsor who also grinded to a round of 16 US Open finish and first time champion Carl-Edmund Roux of the Adelaide Club who captured the U11 Ontario title!