OMNIUM BANQUE NATIONALE

August 7, 2025

Valerie Tetreault

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. I have two questions. One on the bigger scheme of the Masters 1000 and WTA 1000. One more specifically from Montreal. Now, with regards to the 12-day, 96-draw format, the pushback from players has been quite substantial during the past few months. I mean, on an ATP level, two of the top three players during the last week have declared, I actually preferred Monte Carlo tournament because it's one week, and we don't like to be onsite for 12 days. Now, players don't like it, media don't like it, fans don't like it. There is significant pushback. Only people who seem to like it are those in charge of counting the money, which is fine, but from a point of view of the Tournament Advisory Council, can you afford to discount this pushback, which is fairly unprecedented on a tennis level? On the Montreal side, obviously you're trying to do something very new with the final days during the week. I was wondering, is there something that you would have done differently, looking at it now, for example, in terms of scheduling? Like for example, last night Victoria was the first match, and the second match was pretty empty because everybody was kind of spent up after three hours. So these kind of small things.

VALERIE TETREAULT: So maybe I'll start with the first one. So, I mean, obviously we were well aware even before the start of our event on the pushback that has been significant from the players since 2023, so since the start of this new format in Rome, especially in Madrid.

We did believe, though, that with the swing between Canada and Cincinnati that maybe that was kind of the right in between, because if we look at Indian Wells/Miami, Madrid/Rome, those tournaments are played basically over four weeks, where for us and Cincinnati it's over three weeks. So it's a brand new model, which doesn't really exist anywhere else, and that is caused by obviously a calendar that is already pretty tight.

Wimbledon and the US Open are not going to move, so we have the number of weeks that we have in the summer. I think that was part of the challenge, and that's why there still needs to be some adjustments in terms of the scheduling.

But in general, I do think that it's a pretty good model over three weeks. I feel like in the model that we used to have over seven days -- and I mean, we can look back to what happened last year -- as soon as it rains, it creates a lot of pressure on the scheduling.

In the end, the players are the ones that are really paying the price on top of obviously the fans, who sometimes don't necessarily get the tennis that they wanted to see because the players can't necessarily perform at their best level because they don't have enough recovery time.

So that's why I'm anxious to see what's the feedback in general after we've gone through the full swing between Canada and Cincinnati. Who knows? Maybe the players will actually be pushing for Indian Wells and Miami and Madrid and Rome to be played over three weeks instead of four.

That's what's so unique about us this year finishing on a Thursday. There's no other event obviously that finishes in the middle of the week, just like there's not really any other event that starts in the middle of the week, which is the case with Cincinnati right now.

That being said, I mean, I do think that at the end of the day what we're trying to do is to continue to grow the game. So the players want bigger prize money. They want more people coming to watch them, and that is part of the reasons why we decided to come up with this format with the help obviously of the ATP and the WTA. But that was really the belief behind this thinking and this vision.

Then maybe after that on Montreal specifically, the question was?

Q. About the scheduling. Like for example, one of the players had to play quarters, semifinals, and final in three consecutive days. Because of this, last night you had to schedule Victoria first, and Osaka and Tauson played in fairly empty stadium. I was wondering if there's something that you think you can be done about that?

VALERIE TETREAULT: It's going to be part of something that we look at for sure in the postmortem. That being said, overall pretty happy with the schedule.

We felt like we built an Order of Play, an MSP, that made sense, considering that we had the challenge of finishing in the middle of the week. So we wanted to make sure that from the Monday until this last Thursday that we could be prime time for every match, especially since those were the biggest matches.

We started a little bit earlier at 6:00 p.m. with the hope that more people were going to stay for that second match. Of course, when your first match is three hours long, then it doesn't really matter if it's in the afternoon or at night. I think some people then, you know, have had enough, and they're ready to go home or to go celebrate maybe somewhere else.

But I do think that the night sessions with the 6:00 p.m. and the 'followed by,' I'm pretty happy with in general.

Q. I wonder if you could just kind of put in a nutshell what Victoria's run this week has meant to your tournament and the many ways that I suppose she's had an impact here this week?

VALERIE TETREAULT: Yeah, she's had a huge impact obviously on the tournament. You start the event, and you never know what are going to be the storylines, and obviously it's been all about Vicky Mboko.

I mean, I think we feel that Montreal, Quebec, and even across the country, right now everybody is following what's happening at this tournament and is inspired by this young woman, only 18 years of age, who keeps surprising us by her composure, her maturity, her level of play as well, and the self-belief that she has.

I think she's showing us basically that -- and she said it last night -- anything is possible. I think she has a bright future ahead of her. It's great obviously for, yes, the popularity of this event, but even more so, I think for the popularity of tennis.