Tennis Canada Press Release

Montreal, January 27,  2012 – Filip Peliwo (Vancouver, BC) earned a spot in the junior boys singles final on Friday at the Australian Open in Melbourne, Australia. On Saturday, he will attempt to become the first Canadian to win a junior Grand Slam singles title. 

Peliwo has started his 2012 season in remarkable fashion, winning eleven consecutive matches. The 17-year-old is a product of Tennis Canada’s National Tennis Centre in Montreal which he joined in 2010. In the semifnals, Peliwo, ranked no. 7 on the ITF junior rankings, defeated American Mackenzie McDonald 6-4, 6-4 to become the first Canadian since Philip Bester (Vancouver, BC) and Peter Polansky (Thornhill, ON) in 2006 to reach a junior Grand Slam singles final. For the second straight week, Peliwo will meet World No. 1 Luke Saville of Australia in the championship match. Last week at the Traralgon International, Peliwo defeated Saville in three tough sets to capture the biggest title of his career.

The championship match will be played on Rod Laver Arena Friday night around 11 p.m. Eastern Time. The match will be streamed on the Australian Open website.

For her part, Eugenie Bouchard (Westmount, QC) was not able to join her compatriot in the finals as she fell 7-5, 6-1 to fourth-seeded Russian Yulia Putintseva. This marks the second straight year that Bouchard has reached and lost in the semifinals of the Australian Open.