National Bank Open | Eugène Lapierre’s report: record and adjustments

Each edition of the National Bank Open is unique. This year, record ticket sales and the many adjustments that the organizers had to make marked Eugène Lapierre.

Nicholas Richard
The Press

It was with a huge smile stamped on his face that the tournament director announced to the media on Sunday afternoon that ticket sales were historic this year. In fact, 237,158 people attended the tournament and took part in the various activities organized throughout the week at the IGA Stadium. Which is about 12,000 more than the previous record, set in 2019. “We are very satisfied,” exclaimed Lapierre.

Especially since this edition was relatively complex to manage. On the one hand, the weather has taken its toll. On the other hand, most seeded players quickly left.

Know how to adapt

On Monday, the majority of matches were canceled due to rain. Tuesday’s program also suffered. Mother Nature also raged, briefly, on Thursday.

Thus, some matches were moved and rearranging the schedule was quite a headache for organizers and officials. However, after 22 years at the helm of the tournament, panicking was out of the question for Lapierre.

Usually, Monday is used to play a lot of doubles matches. However, it was almost impossible to follow the usual plan. This is why several people during the week wondered how to organize the schedule, as some doubles matches were played at exceptional times. Like the second semi-final on Sunday, which started at quarter past midnight.

He also explained that he and his team were very seriously considering equipping a fifth field with the HawkEye precision system in order to be able to play games there next summer. Thus, there would be one more court available.

falling heads

Among his favorites of the week, the director notes the careers of Félix Auger-Aliassime and Alexis Galarneau, the match between Nick Kyrgios and Daniil Medvedev and the kindness of Hubert Hurkacz.

However, he could not ignore the fact that the favorites fell very early in the tournament. On Tuesday, Medvedev (1), Carlos Alcaraz (2) and Stefanos Tsitsipas (3) were all eliminated.

“When a top seed falls, it’s because someone beat it,” he said aptly.

Hubert Hurkacz was the eighth seed and Pablo Carreno Busta reached his first final of a Masters 1000 tournament at the age of 31.

Lapierre and his team are ready for next year and the ATP leaders were delighted with their organization. Next year, the women will be in Montreal and Lapierre’s dream would be to see Leylah Annie Fernandez triumph.