By Anna Guy
The Big Win
Move over McDavid and
Crosby: Canadian kids have a
new batch of athletes to look
up to, and they aren’t playing
hockey.
Even if you’re not a huge
tennis fan, you heard about
it. In March, 2019, the biggest
win inCanadian tennis history:
18-year-old Canadian Bianca
Andreescu won the BNP Pari-
bas Open (AKA Indian Wells)
women’s singles tournament.
To prove this was no flash in
the pan for Canadian singles
players, fellow Canadians
Félix Auger-Aliassime (18)
and Denis Shapovalov (19)
both reached the semi finals
the following week at the
Miami Open.
NTC
Is this current success a
surprise to Michael Downey,
the two-time CEO of Tennis
Canada, or was it expected?
“I’m not totally surprised,” he
grins.
So how did we get here?
Lightning struck, but Tennis
Canada created the conduc-
tor: Canada’s first National
Training Centre (NTC), which
opened in Montreal in 2007.
The idea behind the NTC “was
to regroup the best tennis
players in the country full-
JUNE 2019 | BUSINESS ELITE CANADA 3
