Filip Peliwo looks down at his racquet in frustration, as if it can tell him why his last shot hit the net. The shoulders on his slim 5-foot-11 frame sink as he scolds himself following yet another unforced error before throwing the racquet against the wall. Apparently he didn’t appreciate its opinion. Earlier this month Peliwo, the world’s top-ranked boys junior player, won the U.S. Open, just the second time a Canadian boy has won a Grand Slam final. The other came back in July, when Peliwo took home the Wimbledon crown amidst a remarkable season in which the 18-year-old Vancouver native has appeared in all four slam finals. But that doesn’t mean a thing on this day. Today he’s just another unseeded player at an International Tennis Federation entry-level Futures event in Markham, Ont., looking for a win in his opening-round match against 22-year-old South African qualifier Dean O’Brien. In a field of 32, he’s in search of precious Tour points for when he makes the jump to the pro circuit full-time next year. This is where tennis dreams begin, in a tiny bubble illuminated in bright fluorescent yellow in front of a “crowd” of no more than 20—almost exclusively coaches and family members of one of the six players competing simultaneously on three adjacent courts. It’s a far cry from the iconic grounds of Flushing Meadows and Roland Garros, but it’s the reality of what it takes to break through to tennis’s main stage—you’re a king one day, a lowly citizen the next. Nobody said it would be easy.
There’s a tangible excitement surrounding Tennis Canada these days. In the past few years, the national program has played a major role in the development of prospects like Peliwo, Montreal’s Eugenie Bouchard, 18 (ranked No. 2 on the junior girls side, she also won Wimbledon this summer and will make the jump to the pros next year, too), and a host of other young emerging talent. Canadian tennis fans have already seen Aleksandra Wozniak, Vasek Pospisil and especially 14th-ranked rising star Milos Raonic experience unforeseen success for Canadian-born players. And with a massive spotlight shining on the sport in this country, this is just the beginning. For the first time, Canada is putting the tennis world on edge.
Fans saw the reason for all the optimism on display last week at the Davis Cup final qualifying round in Montreal, where Canada secured a spot in the World Group stage (they’ll face top-ranked Spain in February) by beating South Africa. With doubles great Daniel Nestor and partner Pospisil upset, Canada’s chances fell to Raonic, who scored two of Canada’s three match wins (Frank Dancevic notched the third). Peliwo was there, too, practising with the Davis Cup participants, but spent most of his time “sparring” with Raonic on the practice court, as the Canadian ace put it. It was an invaluable experience for a sponge like Peliwo, who spent Monday to Friday with one of the best in the world, asking questions and soaking up wisdom in every moment of idle chit-chat during water breaks or walking to and from the dressing room.
Following the U.S. Open, Peliwo had been training in Montreal at the National Tennis Centre, the crown jewel in Tennis Canada’s development program. Built in 2006, the NTC filled a gaping void for a national program still trying to find its identity. “When I joined here in 2004 the stated mission of the organization was to grow the game in this country,” says Tennis Canada president Michael Downey. But even he admits most of the resources were going toward Canada’s two professional tournaments. That all changed when Downey brought in Bob Brett, who coached Boris Becker to world No. 1 in 1991 and currently coaches No. 15 Marin Cilic. Louis Borfiga, the former French federation development director, was also brought in to oversee the NTC. “We had to get serious about high performance,” Downey says.
In many ways, Peliwo is the first successful product of the NTC. He began training there full-time at 15, the optimum age—earlier than Raonic and with more coaching support than 40-year-old Daniel Nestor, Canada’s most successful pro, ever had. “Nestor did it all on his own,” says Downey. “We didn’t really give him financial support because we didn’t have a system in place. Milos was one of the first entries to the NTC. But because we didn’t have a program before, he was already 17. Filip is in that next generation.”
Success wasn’t always a sure thing for Peliwo. He began at the NTC with a boatload of natural ability and a chip on his shoulder. “We had to talk to him a bit, let him know he’s in a team environment,” Downey says. His coaches, Guillaume Marx and Jocelyn Robichaud, worked to harness that edge, but Peliwo found himself outside of the top 100 in junior rankings following his first two years of tournament play. He finished 2011 as the 34th-ranked junior before exploding this year, what Downey calls his “Jeremy Lin season.” He has a reliable game from the baseline, including a powerful and accurate forehand that seems impossible coming from a kid with his slight physique. But it’s his relentlessness that separates Peliwo from his opponents. He routinely fights his way out of close matches against bigger and stronger competition, as he did during the U.S. Open final when he broke his opponent at 5–5 in the third set before taking control of the match. But the step from juniors to pros can be overwhelming. “It’s like going from public school to high school,” says Downey. “You’ve got to start all over again.”
The shots that wreaked havoc on the junior circuit don’t have the same effect once you’ve moved up. On Court 1 in Markham, Peliwo is down one set and clearly frustrated. He tries his best to stay composed, especially critical for a singles player. He’s out there by himself on the court. It’s lonely. There are no coaches to speak to, nobody to offer advice. After taking the first game in the second set off a brilliant forehand down the sideline, he looks into his racquet as if it’s a mirror, and says, “Excellent game, Filip. You’re going to stay in this match if you continue to play smart.” But it’s for naught. Soon he finds himself down 4–1, two games from elimination, and takes his anger out on the racquet, slamming it into the ground repeatedly until the frame is bent beyond use, earning him a warning from the chair umpire.
For his junior success to translate, Peliwo will need to fill out and add some strength to make an impact at the next level. But even in a poor outing like this, you can see the talent. Every so often he uncorks a shot that says, “I belong.” But there are no guarantees. Scroll through a list of past junior slam winners and you’ll be hard-pressed to find many who went on to achieve great things at the professional level. For every Roger Federer there are dozens of nameless junior champs. But as Downey explains, “People say ‘Winning junior grand slams is not necessarily a formula for pro success.’ Yeah, but I’d rather have it on my resumé than not.”
Peliwo loses his match against O’Brien in straight sets. He leaves the court abruptly and is found seconds later sitting on a black leather lounge chair in the lobby, equal parts irate and dejected, his white Lacoste shirt drenched in sweat. He stares into the distance and says nothing. Soon his coach joins him and the two share the silence. He’ll remember this match and there will be more like it along the way. The hope is that these matches provide the foundation for something big, that all the pain and anguish will be worth it, that Filip Peliwo will make it and a generation of Canadian tennis players will be able to point to him like he points to Milos and say, “If he can do it, why can’t I?”
This article originally appeared as a digital bonus for Sportsnet magazine.