Four months have been and gone since I last wrote one of these. Four incredible months for Canadian tennis and for Bianca Andreescu in particular.
To see a Canadian lift the Rogers Cup presented by National Bank trophy for the first time in 50 years and then go on to win the US Open was beyond special. It’s something that I could only dream of for most of my lifetime. Now, it’s a reality.
It all started when my acting skills were put to the test with the announcement of our best-ever player field in June. That announcement set the tone for a record-breaking event with over 128,000 people attending over the nine days.
Bianca’s victory in Toronto captivated the country, inspiring more Canadians to pick up a racquet and take up tennis. It was the icing on the cake for what was an amazing tournament this year.
We couldn’t have been happier with how the site looked. Our operations staff and our partners did an incredible job of bringing their activations to life to ensure our guests had the best possible experience.
But this is no time to rest on our laurels.
Planning for next year’s Rogers Cup is already underway and we couldn’t be more excited to welcome Milos Raonic, Denis Shapovalov and Félix Auger-Aliassime back to Sobeys Stadium as the stars of the ATP Tour roll into town. Maybe our reigning champ, Rafa Nadal, will have caught Roger Federer on 20 Grand Slams by then!
If you thought it was exciting seeing a Canadian go deep at Rogers Cup on home soil, imagine seeing three do it at the same time.
That’s the aim for Milos, Denis and Félix.
There’s no doubt they will have been sitting there, watching Bianca lift the trophy at Sobeys Stadium on TV back in August, thinking to themselves: “I’m next.”
Who knows, we could even find ourselves welcoming a Canadian Olympic medalist home next year, with the Games due to take place in Tokyo a few weeks before our event. How cool would that be?
It’s awesome to see Vasek Pospisil doing so well too. He’s had a hard time with injuries, but it seems he’s on his way to being back to his best. Wins over the likes of Diego Schwartzman and Karen Khachanov in recent weeks prove that. Hopefully he can have a big year in 2020.
As this season comes to a close, it’s going to be so fun watching Félix and Denis compete at the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan. They’ve both had such strong seasons on the Tour and thoroughly deserve to be there.
Then, there’s the small matter of the Davis Cup Finals in Madrid…
Until next time,
Karl
