2025 Rose City Classic
On June 8th, it was a match-for-the-ages at Roland Garros. A week later, on June 15th, we had our own local version of a men’s singles final match marathon as the annual Rose City Classic reached its conclusion on the red clay courts of the Welland Tennis Club.
Nate Czajkowski was last year’s finalist and worked his way through the draw comfortably. Meanwhile, St Catharines native Mark Waler, a resident of Los Angeles, had taken advantage of being home for a few weeks to toss his hat into the mix. His road to the final involved three matches, including an extended semi-final with 2024 champion Kiril Yurukov. On Sunday morning, Nate and Mark battled it out for over two hours before finally ending at 10-8 in the ultimate tiebreak in favour of Mark. As in Paris, the spectators might have wished for a way to give the trophy to both players.
Meanwhile, in the women’s singles the ever-young Anne Rungi is the champion. Anne has been playing the Rose City Classic for over 20 years, and entered the singles this year as part of her preparation for the Steve Stevens Nationals in Vancouver in August, and for Tennis Canada’s 80+ team for the World Championships in Croatia in October. That’s right : 80+! As for inspiring the other players in the event, Anne noted “they were much younger than me, and had less experience. Our common strength was that we love to move on the tennis court and love to play singles.”
Nate won the men’s doubles title, alongside Adam Repovs, while Mariya Yurukova and Anne Kravchenko won the women’s doubles. Mariya also teamed with her brother, Kiril, to claim their first-ever Rose City mixed doubles title.
The tournament has a long and storied history, some of which is included in the 2024 report. The Doug Smith Memorial Trophy is awarded to all the winners, and is reminiscent of the very large cup awarded by Queen’s Club just prior to Wimbledon.
On behalf of the tournament committee, thank you to Burkholder Auto Net Work and Rose City Pizza for their support of our great tournament.
