(Montreal) Despite weather conditions that did not always cooperate and which complicated Valérie Tétreault’s first year as director, the 2023 edition of the National Bank Tennis Open set an attendance record for the female in Montreal. A record that was to be improved a few hours later.
According to figures that Tétreault revealed to the media at the start of the afternoon on Sunday, 198,000 people have visited the site since the start of the tournament.
This total includes the session shown on Saturday afternoon, including the singles semi-final duel between world number one Iga Swiatek and Jessica Pegula. It also includes the very first weekend of the event during which the two qualifying rounds are presented.
Also, Tétreault estimated that the final total will be around 215,000 people, adding the crowd that will attend the two sessions on the program on Sunday.
The old record, according to Tétreault, was around 182,000 spectators in 2014. That was the year, Tétreault recalled, when Eugenie Bouchard reached the final of the Wimbledon Open a few weeks earlier.
Moreover, before addressing the general results of the tournament, Tétreault mentioned that the decision to postpone the session from Saturday evening to Sunday afternoon had been taken because of the weather conditions which made the entire presentation uncertain, and at a reasonable hour, of the second women’s singles semi-final between Elena Rybakina and Liudmila Samsonova.
It started shortly after 1:30 p.m. on Sunday and the winner will face the American Jessica Pegula in a final duel which will begin at 5:30 p.m., at the earliest on center court.
In fact, Saturday evening is the moment that Tétreault found the most difficult of the whole week.
Her biggest crush was Leylah Fernandez’s victory over Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia, the 11th seed and 13th player in the world in a second-round match on Wednesday night on center court.
