MONTREAL, September 16, 2021 (Tennis Canada Press Release)
Tennis Canada announced on Thursday the formal cancellation of the three remaining Challenger events on the calendar. Due to repercussions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Saguenay National Bank Challenger (October 18–24) and the Tevlin Challenger (October 25–31) will not be held in 2021. Moreover, the Drummondville National Bank Challenger, which was originally scheduled for March 2021 before being postponed to November 2021, will also be cancelled.
“This was a heart-breaking decision for Tennis Canada and the respective organizing committees to come to,” said Eugène Lapierre, Tennis Canada’s Senior Vice President of Professional Tennis in Quebec. “While the situation is far better than it was at the beginning of the year, the pandemic is not over and it generates a lot of challenges for these tournaments. The latest provincial rule making vaccination mandatory for anyone to play indoor tennis in Quebec would prohibit participation by some international athletes because, elsewhere in the world, vaccination is simply not at the level that we have reached in Quebec and Canada.”
“It is always disappointing when we are forced to cancel tournaments as it represents lost opportunities for Canadian players to earn valuable ranking points,” commented Gavin Ziv, Tennis Canada’s Senior Vice-President of Professional Events. “However, thanks to the hard work put forth by the organizing committees, we are certain that these events will be back even stronger than before in 2022.”
QUOTES
Saguenay National Bank Challenger (2022: October 17–23)
“While we are disappointed that we won’t be able to welcome players this year in Saguenay, our team has already started preparing for 2022,” commented the President of the event Jean Delisle. “The pandemic was and is still challenging, but our tournament has always been an important sport and social happening in the Saguenay region and we certainly plan to keep it that way starting next year.”
Tevlin Challenger (2022: October 24–30)
“It is really unfortunate that we are unable to host the Tevlin Challenger again this year,” said Ryan Borczon, Senior Manager, Professional and National Events at Tennis Canada and Tevlin Challenger Tournament Director. “It is always such a wonderful event that allows us to witness some of the upcoming stars of female tennis, and we look forward to hosting it again in 2022.”
Drummondville National Bank Challenger (2022: November 14-20)
“Unfortunately, while we initially had high hopes of hosting our event in November when we postponed it back in March, the current situation makes it impossible for our team to hold the tournament this year,” added Drummondville Event Director Alain Caillé. “We will therefore turn our attention to 2022 with the objective to host once again the best upcoming tennis players from around the world.”
