{"id":2032,"date":"2017-04-10T14:37:37","date_gmt":"2017-04-10T18:37:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/?p=2032"},"modified":"2017-04-10T14:37:37","modified_gmt":"2017-04-10T18:37:37","slug":"tennis-continues-to-grow-north-of-the-border","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2017\/04\/10\/tennis-continues-to-grow-north-of-the-border\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis Continues to Grow in Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you ask an outsider\u2019s perspective on Canada, when referring to its national sport the immediate response would be Hockey. All things considered, there are also those with the naivety to suggest that most Canadians live in igloos. While the numbers exemplify hockey as the most popular national sport<\/a>, it isn\u2019t necessarily the most prevalent in terms of participation by Canada\u2019s youth. From a parental perspective the most important aspect is for their kids to be safe and build solid character values through athletics. Look no further than the sport of Tennis.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the last two decades Tennis has grown not only from a global perspective, but has become quite popular in Canada. A big reason for its growing popularity has been the emergence of stars such as Milos Raonic, Eugenie Bouchard, and Vasek Pospisi and some mention of \u00a0Daniel Nestorl. The interest in the sport and the capable athletes Canada has produced speaks volumes to the development program within the nation. To gauge an in depth perspective on the growth of Tennis in Canada, I spoke with Senior Vice President of Tennis Development for <\/span>Tennis Canada<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Hatem Mcdadi<\/span><\/a>. Provided is a slightly edited transcript of the interview.<\/span><\/p>\n

Q and A with Hatem Mcdadi: Senior Vice President of Development Hatem Mcdadi<\/span><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

Q: What are the responsibilities in terms of your specific role?<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A: <\/b>\u201cTennis Development which includes: high performance, community, grassroots, coaching, officiating, seniors, wheelchair tennis, provincial partners\u2026 Really all aspects from getting rackets in the hands of youngsters and families, and the pathway to the Olympics, the Paralympics, Grand Slams, Davis and Fed Cup, and <\/span>tennis for life<\/span><\/a>. Basically ensuring Canadians enjoy the sport on all levels.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Q: Now, you spoke about getting rackets in the hands of youngsters. The sport has grown rapidly within Canada and a big factor of that has been the success of Milos Raonic, and Eugenie Bouchard but what was the turning point when did the growth really take off?<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A: \u00a0\u201c<\/b>There are a few factors\u2026 There\u2019s been a lot of really talented families and committed personal Canadian coaches involved with athletes like \u00a0Milos, Vasek, and Eugenie, and some of the youngsters coming up now\u2026 There\u2019s been very committed provincial tennis associations that work in partnership with Tennis Canada to grow and develop the sport. the globalization of the sport has really helped, and by that I mean, the rivalries between stars; (Rafael) Nadal, and (Roger) Federer, (Novak) Djokovic, and (Andy) Murray, Serena, maria and others etc…. Has grown tennis and provided more exposure to tennis on television, it’s brought with it a higher interest and more fans. And then the Canadian phenomena… Eugenie 2014 finals of Wimbledon, and Milos in 2016, it\u2019s inspired a whole new generation to play and get involved\u2026 this is just part of the story of growth. \u00a0Other factors that are contributing include \u00a0our changing demographics in Canada. Many (new) Canadians that come from other cultures like Europe, South America, and Asia love tennis. It has really helped the sport\u2026. It\u2019s also really affordable, accessible, and there\u2019s a safety aspect. There\u2019s been a lot of talk, about concussions in contact sports, tennis doesn’t have that. It\u2019s really a sport for life. All of the above said has helped. \u00a0In addition, ten to eleven years ago was the beginning of something really special.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Q: What was that?<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A: \u00a0<\/b>\u201c The Tennis Canada board approved the opening of the <\/span>Montreal National Training Center<\/span><\/a>, it was really a watershed moment. We went out and hired one of the best coach in the world, Louis Borfiga from France. Louis worked with the strong Canadian Coaches, worked with partners and started the first national training centre in Montreal. Since then we have regional training centre programs in Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary is in the midst of being established. There’s been a really well thought out long term athlete development and sport for life structure and system put in place, the likes of Milos and Eugenie have gone through it\u2026. A number of things have happened but the hiring of Louis… and the opening of the national training centre structure has really helped . In addition, the leadership of our Tennis Canada Board and \u00a0our CEO Michael Downey at the time, was instrumental in all of the above structures and success.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Q: Now speaking about Louis, you mentioned he has been integral to the development, what\u2019s his specific background?<\/b><\/p>\n

A:<\/b> \u201cHe\u2019s a former davis cup player\u2026 He also was the leader and ran the top national training centre in France\u2026 He was responsible for (the development of great players in France), he has a tremendous track record\u2026.France would be recognized as probably the best country with a system in place. They have the best tennis development systems, he has an impeccable pedigree, and background in the sport of developing champions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Q: In Terms of Marketing the Sport to Canada\u2019s youth you mentioned the safety factor, is that a big factor to get young children invested to the game?<\/b><\/p>\n

A: \u201c<\/b>, it\u2019s an inherent part with the nature of our sport. The big push we\u2019ve been working on with our partners, clubs, schools, communities, coaches, and our provincial tennis association partners is right sized rackets and balls and equipment, what we call kids tennis\u2026 It\u2019s so youngsters can have success. There\u2019s four types of balls you progress from the red ball, to the green ball, etc\u2026 Also court dimensions there\u2019s three different sized courts, (depending on the balls being used)… A Lot of energy and emphasis has been put into ensuring there\u2019s team competition and leagues, and opportunities for kids to play in a non threatening environment at a young age.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tennis Canada\u2019s tireless work developing the nation’s youth the future of the sport couldn’t shine brighter. In fact <\/span>the numbers show overwhelming success. More than 600,000 children between the ages of 6-11 picked up a racquet in the last year. This represents a major increase of more than 80% for that age group. The study also shows that the majority of the new fan interest in the sport overall is coming from a younger demographic. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you ask an outsider\u2019s perspective on Canada, when referring to its national sport the immediate response would be Hockey. All things considered, there are also those with the naivety to suggest that most Canadians live in igloos. While the numbers exemplify hockey as the most popular national sport, it isn\u2019t necessarily the most prevalent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1897,"featured_media":469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2,4],"tags":[182,291,20,873,872],"class_list":["post-2032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-atp","category-featured","category-wta","tag-davis-cup","tag-eugenie-bouchard","tag-milos-raonic","tag-national-training-centre","tag-tennis-canda"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1897"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}