Schnur reaches quarters in Granby with upset win

At the beginning of the year, one of Brayden Schnur’s goals was to reach the top-200 in the ATP rankings.

Schnur, only one year into his professional tennis career, is assured of reaching that level next week after getting to the quarter-finals of the $100,000 Granby National Bank Challenger Thursday. Schnur had to work overtime, but he upset third-seeded Go Soeda of Japan 6-4, 6-7, 7-5.

Schnur missed two chances to put the match away in the second set. He was serving for the match at 5-4 and 6-5, but Soeda broke back on both occasions.

“I was going for big shots, trying to end it quickly,” Schnur said. “Even though I lost the tiebreaker, I was happy with the way I played and I was able to settle down and refocus.”

The 22-year-old Torontonian was an all-American at North Carolina, but left last spring after 2 1/2 years. He made his pro debut at the Rogers Cup in Toronto, where he lost to Radek Stepanek in the first round of qualifying. This time around, it’s likely he’ll get one of the wild-card spots in the main draw.

Veteran Peter Polansky is also in line for a wild-card berth at the Rogers Cup, and he claimed his berth in the quarter-finals here with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-0 win over Alejandro Gonzalez of Colombia.

Samuel Monette of Montreal, a former Indiana University star, was no match for American Mackenzie McDonald, losing 6-1, 6-1.

Seventh-seed Tatsuma Ito of Japan downed Steven Diez, a Toronto native based in Spain, 7-5, 6-4. Ito’s next opponent is top-seeded Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia.

There was a major upset in the companion $60,000 ITF women’s event as Katherine Sebov of Toronto defeated top-seeded Bianca Andreescu of Mississauga.