‘A dream come true’

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This article was published 13/07/2025 (250 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Liam Draxl fell to the ground with his hands on his face as the crowd at the Tennis Manitoba Hub in West St. Paul erupted, many giving a standing ovation for the 23-year-old player from Newmarket, Ont.

For the first time in its 13-year history, there’s a Canadian champion at the Winnipeg National Bank Challenger.

Draxl — who plays in the Association of Professional Tennis (ATP) Challenger Tour — defeated Belgium’s Alexander Blockx in a hard-fought, three-set battle today. He has made it to six Challenger Tour finals in the past eight months — and lost every one.

But back on home soil, he finally got it done, becoming just the third Canadian to reach the Winnipeg Challenger final and the first to win it.

“What this sport teaches you is just you have to keep fighting and never give up,” said Draxl. “And, you know, you just have to keep believing. And I finally got it done again. And like I said, it just feels amazing, because it’s so tough to win a tournament, and I’ve been so close so many times.”

Draxl won his first ATP Challenger Tour singles title at the 2023 Calgary Challenger, making Winnipeg his second career win in that category.

It’s not the first time Blockx and Draxl — the No. 1 and 2 seeds of the tournament, respectively — have faced each other on the Challenger Tour, as 20-year-old Blockx was one of the players to hand Draxl one of his six finals losses.

Back in January at the Oeiras 3, Blockx, who is ranked 141st in the ATP world rankings, won in straight sets to claim his second career Challenger title 7-5, 6-1.

Seven months later, it looked like Blockx might repeat the result after taking the first set 6-1, but Draxl fought back to win the next two sets 6-3, 6-4.

“I was a little sluggish,” said Draxl on the first set. “Legs were heavy, I wasn’t feeling the ball that good, and I honestly just made the decision just to compete as hard as I could, whatever I had left in the tank, I just gave it all out there.”

Draxl, ranked 147th in the world going into the tournament, admitted he was feeling the toll of playing back-to-back Challengers, coming off a loss to Japan’s Rei Sakamoto in the Cary Tennis Classic finals in North Carolina on July 6 before flying to Winnipeg for the tournament that began July 7.

Despite also facing an ankle injury that bothered him in the second round of the tournament, Draxl persevered and was seemingly the most energetic person around in the finals.

“I tried to engage the crowd, and they were amazing today,” said Draxl. “We were really feeding off each other, and that can just get you through two more sets.”

Yelling “Let’s go,” “Vamos” and “Allez,” and pumping his hands to the crowd after various game or set wins, Draxl brought the contagious energy, which he says he picked up playing at the University of Kentucky.

Tournament director Mark Arndt says the last match was a “dream final” and capped off a great event despite some weather challenges throughout the week.

“It was a great finish of course,” said Arndt. “The week was challenging, hence we think about rebranding it from the Winnipeg National Bank Challenger to ‘Challenging,’ because it was challenging with the smoke not in our control, and then the rain day we had on Monday.”

But blue skies poked through the smoke on Sunday in West St. Paul, allowing the finals to go ahead as scheduled as Draxl took home $14,200 for first place — the largest payout in the event’s history.

“We started this thing about 13 years ago at a $25,000 (overall) prize money, now we’re up to $100,000, so it’s awesome,” said Arndt. “I truly believe we always want to keep growing. I mean, they say if you stop growing, you start dying, so we want to keep growing and go to the next level.”

Next stop on the Challengers Tour for Draxl is the Granby National Bank Challenger, a town east of Montreal. The tournament runs from July 13 to July 20.

“It’s a dream come true, really,” said Draxl. “You know, you can’t really control when it’s your week. I’m just so glad I’ve been able to win some tournaments on home soil. So I’m just so grateful, and I just want to thank everyone here in Winnipeg, and I’ll be back next year.”

zoe.pierce@freepress.mb.ca