{"id":852075,"date":"2026-08-12T01:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T01:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/852075\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T01:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T01:50:09","slug":"canadian-u-s-tennis-federations-met-during-nbo-to-talk-about-growing-the-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/852075\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian, U.S. tennis federations met during NBO to talk about growing the game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Members of Tennis Canada and the United States Tennis Association met at the National Bank Open in Toronto on Monday to discuss how they can grow the game and help facilitate year-round play in colder climates.John E. Sokolowski\/Reuters<\/p>\n

At a time when relationships are uneasy between Canadian and U.S. political leaders, the two North American tennis federations were productive together on Monday, and neighbourly.<\/p>\n

Members of the United States Tennis Association visited with Tennis Canada in Toronto on Monday to trade knowledge about a big challenge they both face: how to give people more affordable, accessible places to play tennis. <\/p>\n

While WTA tournament action unfolded at the National Bank Open, facilities development staff from the two federations huddled in the wings of Sobeys Stadium sharing ideas. While their high performance athletes compete against one another on the world stage, the two national bodies share a goal of growing tennis participation.<\/p>\n

They spent a full day sharing strategies about everything from bubbling outdoor courts to fixing old ones that have bad asphalt and no tennis programming, and how to create alliances with municipalities and partners. Anything that will help them meet the increasing demand that shows up in sport research studies. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have this participation growth explosion in both countries, and so when people get excited about playing, where do they go?\u201d said Anita Comella, Tennis Canada\u2019s senior director, facilities development. \u201cI can\u2019t tell you how many times today we said, \u2018I\u2019ll send you this,\u2019 or \u2018I\u2019ll send you that.\u2019 It\u2019s not about scarcity or propriety. It\u2019s about sharing, expanding and growing where we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sports bettors lead the online mob of harassment that WTA players face<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2025, more than 6 million Canadians played tennis. That\u2019s an increase of over a million players since 2023. Tennis Canada says the country has 7,500 courts, but only about 750 are covered for year-round play, meaning most are restricted to playing about only four months of the year. Canada is way behind other tennis nations in providing year-round courts.<\/p>\n

In the U.S., tennis participation increased by 1.6 million in 2025 to a new high of 27.3 million total players. The USTA set a goal to hit 35 million playing by 2035 \u2013 about 10 per cent of the U.S. population. <\/p>\n

While the numbers are vastly different in the two nations, they see the same trend in their participation growth \u2013 new citizens.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re both seeing triple digit growth year over year in terms of player participation. Obviously as a world sport, immigrants coming to the United States are bringing a lot of that ethos, that kind of interest,\u201d said Christian Gabriel, USTA\u2019s managing director, tennis infrastructure and venue strategy. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf [courts] aren\u2019t accessible at a price point that people can afford, or is aspirational, then it\u2019s not going to ignite new players and continue that kind of upward trajectory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

More Canadians playing tennis could lead to producing more pros, like Leylah Fernandez, but Tennis Canada and the USTA were focused more on providing for a growing grassroots level of play in their meeting on Monday.Keito Newman\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

That USTA noted some of its specific areas of growth: Participation among women is up 10 per cent, Black African American up 14 per cent, Hispanic Latino up 12 per cent and Asian\/Pacific Islander players up 10 per cent. <\/p>\n

Comella said new Canadians are identifying tennis as one of their top three favourite sports. Those born and raised in Canada rank tennis in their top five.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the two groups shared their experiences with data and technology, how they track the metrics they\u2019re using and what evidence-based research to use while talking to partners. They discussed how they could better index public tennis courts in parks as recreation assets, like public pools and ice rinks \u2013 spaces that could be better programmed, maintained and their use measured.<\/p>\n

The USTA is largely funded by the commercial success of the U.S. Open, while Tennis Canada is fuelled mostly by revenue from its National Bank Open. They\u2019re operating on different scales, but have the same mission.<\/p>\n

Facility development has been a top priority for Tennis Canada, and the USTA was interested while hearing about its two funding programs. <\/p>\n

Tennis Canada works with National Bank on a program to revitalize outdoor courts. It has also partnered with Rogers on a year-round tennis project, to build 160 year-round courts at up to 30 facilities by 2029, working with communities to get those done. For each project, Rogers provides $200,000 of seed money. The program has already invested about $3.1-million of an eventual $5.6-million, but it has led to over $50-million in new tennis infrastructure.<\/p>\n

They talked about what it\u2019s like in tough financial times to seek money for sports facilities. So they workshopped reframing it as good for things like health benefits, leadership and social cohesion. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re talking about is actually less about tennis,\u201d said Comella, \u201cand more about community building.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Members of Tennis Canada and the United States Tennis Association met at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":852076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747,22600],"class_list":["post-852075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-topstory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=852075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/852076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}