NBO Toronto tournament director: Event has ‘grown tremendously’

TORONTO — The enthusiasm for the World Cup in Toronto seemed to carry over to the National Bank Open presented by Rogers.

The Filipino community’s response to rising star Alexandra Eala was the story of the annual WTA Tour 1000 event in Canada, but other groups in the multicultural city also showed up to support their players — giving off a bit of a World Cup vibe.

One of the best examples was Ukrainian backing for Elina Svitolina and Polish fans cheering for Iga Swiatek in Wednesday night’s semifinal.

“I think one of the (unique things) about this event in particular this year was, in the past we saw tens of flags from various nations throughout. This year we saw hundreds and thousands of flags,” tournament director Karl Hale told reporters at his event-closing press conference on Thursday.

“(Wednesday) night you saw the engagement of the fans with each other, which was great to see. In addition to that, you saw the fans staying until the end of the session for the whole tournament. So people were staying until midnight basically to see their players.

“The fans were really loyal with the players, and the players were fully engaged with the fans.”

With nine of the top 10 players in the world in the field, the 13-day tournament (one day of qualifying and 12 days of main-draw action) was expected to have a total attendance of around 215,000 — a Toronto WTA record.

The tournament expanded to the 13-day format (up from a week plus two days of qualifying) just last year, so a record is no surprise — even with homegrown reigning champ Victoria Mboko out with an injury. But early-tournament sellouts for Eala and Canadian Leylah Fernandez, who both reached the round of 16, created a nice buzz ahead of the final four days of the event.

“I think one of the things that we've kind of noticed with the two-week event … is the sport in Canada's grown tremendously, the tournament has grown tremendously,” Hale said. “We have Canadian stars now with Felix (Auger-Aliassime) and Vicky (Mboko). Women's tennis has grown a lot.

“The longer model looks like it's capturing more people. This is a record audience, it's incredible … So we're very happy with the two-week model at this time.”

Since the introduction of the 13-day model, the men’s tournament (in Montreal this year, and back in Toronto next year) has been the one with more player dropout issues.

Hale knows Tennis Canada needs to keep being proactive in discussions with the tours.

“We're a mandatory event. We want all of the top players here,” Hale said. “After this tournament, we have meetings in New York, and we're going to meet with the tours, and try to ensure that we have the top player field like we did this year, nine of the top 10 players.”