Whitehorse tennis players have pulled off a rare repeat to maintain possession of the Capital Cup.
Players from the Yukon capital won 265 games to Juneau’s 246 to win the sister-city tennis challenge over the weekend for a second year in a row.
The win for Whitehorse is also a win for Mayor Dan Curtis, who made a friendly wager with Juneau mayor Ken Koelsch over the outcome. Koelsch is now duty-bound to wear touristy Whitehorse apparel at Juneau’s next city council meeting.
“Mayor Dan Curtis came out and played a little exhibition match Friday night to help kickoff the event,” said Tennis Yukon president Stacy Lewis. “Mayor Curtis asked me to council tonight with the cup to show them. So I guess I’m going to do that. There aren’t too many things between Whitehorse and Juneau – sister-city rivalries.”
Whitehorse, which before last year hadn’t won the cup since 2012, took 26 of 47 pro-sets over the weekend at the Mount McIntyre courts.
Yukoners Claude Beaudry, Angus Clarke, Nils Clarke, Michel Gelinas, Ewan Halliday, Justin Halowaty, Van Pham and Shahid Sayed each went undefeated against Juneau players at the three-day event.
The Capital Cup dates back to 1983 but was discontinued in 2000. Since its resurrection in 2008, Juneau has won eight of 13 challenges. There used to be a winter edition in Juneau, but the Alaska capital now only has two indoor courts – not enough for a tournament.
The Yukon Tennis Championships begin this week with round robin matches taking place through to Aug. 12. They will be followed by a week of playoff matches and then finals on Aug. 19.
Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com