Photo: Sarah-Jade Champagne
Regular competition resumes and Pro-level tournaments make long-awaited return
On Monday, Tennis Canada released their official National Event Calendar for the 2022 tennis season. After over two years of postponing and cancelling tournaments due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Tennis Canada is extremely pleased to welcome back a full slate of events for this season. From coast to coast, all levels of tennis players will be able to hit the courts in 2022 as the country inches its way back towards normality.
“This is fantastic news for tennis players and fans alike,” said Eva Havaris, Vice-President of Partnerships and Participation at Tennis Canada. “We can’t wait for Canadians to get out and experience these tournaments as they did prior to the pandemic. It’s extremely important to have these national competitions up and running again since they not only stimulate players, coaches, and clubs, they also help grow the sport of tennis in Canada.”
As part of the release of the 2022 National Event Calendar, over 70 tournaments are set to take place from March 22 to November 14. There are events across all categories (Junior, OPEN, Senior, and Wheelchair), as well as 14 Pro-level tournaments. Last month, it was announced that the Odlum Brown VanOpen in Vancouver, and the National Bank Championships in Granby, were each going to host a combined WTA and ATP Challenger event in August, following the conclusion of the world-renowned National Bank Open in Montreal and Toronto.
Other notable Pro-level events returning in 2022 are the Saskatoon Challenger (Women’s event – July 17-24), the Winnipeg National Bank Challenger (Men’s event – July 24-31), the Graystone Challenger in Fredericton (Women’s event – October 9-16), the Saguenay National Bank Challenger (Women’s event – October 17-23), the Tevlin Challenger (Women’s event – October 23-30), the Calgary National Bank Challenger (Men’s and Women’s event – November 6-13), and the Drummondville National Bank Challenger (Men’s event – Nov 14-20).
On top of the resumption of regular competition, Tennis Canada announced in the Fall of 2021 that the National Bank Rankings resumed its regular weekly processing of tournament results. They were frozen from March 2020 to September 2021 in response to the pandemic. Now, players will be able to accumulate ranking points while competing in tournaments across the nation. Details on the changes the ranking system will undergo in 2022 can be found here.
Kicking off the 2022 season will be Canada’s best Juniors, as they head to Montreal (U16), Vancouver (U12), Toronto (U18), and Calgary (U14) to compete in the Fischer Indoor Junior Nationals at the end of March. It will be the first year since 2019 that Tennis Canada will be offering both the Fischer Indoor and Outdoor Junior Nationals, the latter to be played in August.
