Brayden Schnur (born July 4, 1995) is a
Canadian professional
tennis player. He reached a career-high ATP singles ranking of No. 92 in August 2019. Schnur was a part of the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill tennis team from January 2014 to May 2016. He turned professional in July 2016 at the
Rogers Cup.[1] Schnur was a member of the Canadian team that won the
2022 ATP Cup.[2]
Early life
Schnur was born in
Pickering, Ontario, to Chris Schnur and Anne-Marie Nielsen; he has a younger sister named Amanda.[3] He first started playing tennis at the age of eight, on public courts near his home in Pickering.[4] Schnur left home at the age of 14 and moved to
Bradenton, Florida, where he trained with Heath Turpin.[3] He was part of Tennis Canada's National Training Centre from 2011 to 2013 under the guidance of
Guillaume Marx.[5]
Tennis career
2011–13
In April 2011, Schnur won the first title of his career on the Junior Circuit at the G5 in
Burlington.[6] He played his first professional tournament at the Futures in
Indian Harbour Beach in June 2011 where he lost in qualifying.[7] In February 2012, Schnur and fellow Canadian Hugo Di Feo won the doubles title at the G2 junior tournament in
La Paz.[8] The pair also won the junior doubles title at the GB1 in
Tulsa in October 2012.[9]
In July 2013, Schnur reached his first professional singles final at the Futures in
Kelowna but was defeated in three sets by compatriot
Philip Bester.[10] A month later at the Futures in
Calgary, Schnur won the first professional singles of his career with a revenge victory over Bester.[11] At the end of August 2013, he became the first Canadian man to win the G1 junior tournament in
Repentigny.[12] In November 2013, Schnur won his first pro doubles title with a win over
Alex Llompart and
Finn Tearney.[13]
2014
At the
Richmond Futures in June, Schnur made it to his second professional doubles final but lost to
Rik de Voest and his partner.[14] Two weeks later at the Futures in
Saskatoon, he captured the second pro doubles title of his career with a straight sets victory over Mousheg Hovhannisyan and Alexander Sarkissian.[15] In July, Schnur reached the semifinals in doubles of the
2014 Challenger Banque Nationale de Granby.[16] At the
Rogers Cup in August, Schnur qualified for his first ATP main draw with wins over world No. 94
Matthew Ebden and 9th seed
Yūichi Sugita.[17] He lost to world No. 51
Andreas Seppi in the first round.[18] In August at the Futures in
Calgary, Schnur captured the third doubles title of his career with Tar Heels teammate Jack Murray after defeating
Dimitar Kutrovsky and Dennis Nevolo.[19] In late October, Schnur captured the NCAA regional singles title, providing him with a bid into the 2014 National Indoor Championships in New York. Schnur then went on to take the 2014 Singles National Indoor Championships.[20]
2015–16
In June 2015 at the
Richmond Futures, Schnur reached the third singles final of his career but fell in three sets to compatriot
Philip Bester.[21] In July, he was part of the Canadian team at the
2015 Pan American Games in Toronto where he made it to the quarterfinals in singles.[22] In August at the
2015 Rogers Cup qualifying, Schnur upset world No. 98
Ruben Bemelmans in straight sets in the first round but was defeated by world No. 76
Lu Yen-hsun in the final round.[23]
Schnur captured his second pro singles title in September 2016 after defeating
Tim van Rijthoven at the
Calgary Futures.[24] Also in September 2016, he won the doubles title at the
Niagara-on-the-Lake Futures with fellow Canadian
Filip Peliwo and reached the final in singles.[25] In December 2016, he won his third Futures singles title with a victory over
JC Aragone in
Tallahassee.[26]
2017–18
Schnur won the fourth ITF singles title of his career in April 2017at the 25K in
Little Rock with a victory over compatriot
Philip Bester.[27] He captured his second straight Futures title three weeks later in
Abuja, defeating
Fabiano de Paula in the final.[28]
In January 2018, at his first tournament of the season, he reached the final of his first ATP Challenger at the 75K in
Playford, but was defeated by
Jason Kubler.[29]
2019
In February 2019, the Canadian reached the singles final of the
New York Open, where he lost to
Reilly Opelka. After reaching the final, his ranking moved to a then career-high 107th in the world. Schnur made the men's singles draw of a Grand Slam for the first time at
Wimbledon, when he replaced
Borna Ćorić as a lucky loser after the Croatian player withdrew with an injury. He also entered at the
US Open as a direct entry, his only other Major participation.