(by Steve Hopkins)
The Canadian Junior National Championships took place last week in Drummondville, a suburb of Montreal in Quebec, Canada. One hundred and thirty of Canada’s best juniors converged to play in six singles events: U13 Boys and Girls, U15 Boys and Girls, and Under 19 Boys and Girls. 
The top prizes in the most senior events went to Simeon Martin of Quebec in the Boys U19, and to Jesse Xu of Ontario in the Girls U19.
Simeon was the top seed in the Boys U19 event, and he won the event as expected. A 3-1 win over Samuel Awad, a 4-0 win over Kenny Ly, a 3-1 win over Joakim Desmeules, and a dominant Finals 3-0 win over Kevin Guo. The U19 Girls event proceeded similarly, with Jessie Xu entering as top seed and advancing for the win. Jessie had a narrow 3-2 win in the Quarterfinals over Demi Yu Ting Cai, and a 3-1 win over Ching Nam Fu in the Semis, before pulling out a 3-2 Finals win over Crystal Liu.
The U15 Girls event was another win for Jessie Xu. Like the U19 event, she entered as the top seed and cruised through the early rounds culminating in a 3-1 win over Emily Liu in the Final. The U15 Boys title went to Frederick Zhang. Frederick had a strong 3-1 win over Zonggang Li in the Final.
The U13 Boys event also went to the top seed. Sanuka Herath logged three 3-0 wins and then had a 3-1 Finals win over Yohan Ouellet. U13 Girls was the only event that did not go to the top seed. In that event, Ding Hao Zuo, the third seed, defeated second seeded Alexus Lee 3-1 in the Semifinals and then topped first seeded Olivia Huang 3-2 in the Final.
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