Canadian boys wow the Center Court crowd

• Facebook
• Twitter

Success at last for Saxton/Schalk! Photocredit: Joerg Mitter

Finallllyyyyyyyyyyy! The wait is over for a win on Friday for the Canadians! Thank you Ben Saxton and Chaim Chalk!

Three home teams had all fallen to defeats on Center Court but Saxton/Schalk changed all that to put smiles on their faces and those of their fans at the Swatch World Tour Finals in Toronto.

The Olympians, who lost their opening game of the tournament yesterday to Americans Hyden/Bourne, repelled the strong-serving game of Evandro and his partner Pedro Solberg to delight the thousands of Canadian fans basking in the fun on the packed Center Court.

Saxton/Schalk got into a nice rhythm in a tight first set and back by the support from the stands they took it 23-21.

But it all went wrong in the second set for the Canadians as the Brazilians and Gstaad Major champions Pedro Solberg/Evandro hit back to level the score at 1-1.

The crowd knew they had to summon the energy to urge on their heroes in the deciding set and they did precisely that. The final set was a tense affair – both sides’ advantage was never more than two points and after being denied one match point, Schalk made the game safe with a stunning diagonal attack which sent the crowd into a frenzy.

On securing their first win Chaim said: “It was better than yesterday. We passed Evandro’s serve for the most part. He still got a lot of aces but we managed to control the serve enough where we were able to sideout and get the points we needed to win.

"It’s just about finding our rhythm. We’d been out of competition more than a month after Rio so it’s nice to be back in there and we’re excited for elimination.

"It’s amazing having a home crowd and we never get this. Having those stands, they’re full and tomorrow is going to be playoffs and the weekend so it’s going to get crazy and rowdy in there and it’s so fun playing and we love all that support."

"This crowd here is amazing and we want to make them proud,” added Ben. “We’ll try to get every point and every win that we can for them.

"Huge win. We’re happy to get out of the pool with second place and it will give us a push to be able to get some more."

The Canadians learn of their fate in Saturday’s elimination draw which takes place later today – stay tuned for the full draw and congratulations boys!