With Félix Auger-Aliassime at the ATP Finals and Canada’s A-team at Davis Cup next week, there’s no shortage of tennis content.
National Bank gets kudos for its stake in the future through its international tennis events and tournaments in Drummondville, Saguenay, Granby and Calgary.
While the prestige (read: visibility) obviously doesn’t compare to the Canadian opens in Montréal and Toronto, all the credit goes to the financial institution for supporting tennis’ next gens.
As you celebrate Félix and Denis Shapovalov for all they’ve achieved in the sport, don’t forget that they had a stopover in Drummondville early on in their careers.
We already know who the real winners are at Tennis René-Verrier: the Canadians who monopolized 20 spots in the main draws of the singles and doubles events. Many of them even earned their very first ATP ranking points without having to hop on a plane to Helsinki, Champaign, Illinois or somewhere in Asia.
That’s what I’d call an excellent investment by National Bank.
More kudos
Kudos also go to Alain Caillé, Stéphan Hamel and Dominic Joly, who make up the three-person committee that oversees the Drummondville Challenger.
While their success was never in doubt, it’s not easy to pick up where you left off before the pandemic. They did a really great job.
With that, Québec is expanding its family of tennis tournaments: there’s a new venture on the table, and it’ll get rolling sooner rather than later. The target is an inaugural edition in winter 2023.
Keeping up with the captain
You can add a fourth and familiar name to the list of ATP members in Drummondville.
With all the Canadians in the mix, Davis Cup captain Frank Dancevic has been (very) busy this week.
Frank’s no stranger to Tennis René-Verrier. He was even a finalist there in 2015 (versus John-Patrick Smith of Australia).
Unless his plans change, Dancevic will catch a flight to Malaga, Spain, and the Davis Cup Finals on Friday.
Still more kudos
Just as busy as Frank Dancevic is Martin Laurendeau.
In addition to coaching Gabriel Diallo, he’s currently finalizing his appointment as the newest member of the enshrinement committee of the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island.
It’s a wonderful honour. Martin was recruited by Todd Martin himself!
Without giving away too many secrets, I can tell you that with 91 titles and over 1,000 Tour wins, 50-year-old Daniel Nestor is basically a shoo-in.
Great cause
Sébastien Jacques, general manager of the Mount Royal Tennis Club, is jetting off to Italy to complete 2,000 kilometres or the equivalent of 47 marathons in 50 days. He was so impressed by all the work they do at the CHU Sainte-Justine that he’s decided to donate the money he’s raised to the pediatric hospital.
Where are they now?
Petr Korda, 1998 AO champion and a finalist in Montréal in 1991, is returning to competition.
In golf, that is.
He’s been extended an invitation to the PNC Championship event in December along with his daughter Nelly (Tiger Woods will be there, too). Don’t worry about Petr, though, since Nelly just regained her No.1 spot in the women’s world rankings.
