Serena Williams, of the USA, left, serves against Belinda Bencic, of Switzerland, during the National Bank Open tennis tournament in Toronto, Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022. The National Bank Open will award an equal amount of prize money to men's and women's tennis players starting in 2027, Tennis Canada announced Tuesday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
TORONTO – The National Bank Open will award an equal amount of prize money to men’s and women’s tennis players starting in 2027, Tennis Canada announced Tuesday.
The annual Canadian tournament – a WTA 1000 event on the women’s tour and Masters 1000 stop on the men’s ATP Tour – runs concurrently in Toronto and Montreal in early August.
“This is quite a big achievement for us trying to get an equity place for our sport in this country,” said Tennis Canada chief tournament officer Gavin Ziv.
The tournament will also receive an upgrade in status, expanding from seven-day main draw competitions to 12 days starting in 2025, with the exception of Olympic years.
Additional financial resources will come from WTA Ventures, which will centralize WTA commercial rights and assets and bring a “gradual influx of funds” for the National Bank Open, Tennis Canada said in a release.
The national sport organization said it plans to use those funds, along with continued support from its title sponsor, to “significantly reduce” the prize money gap between men and women.
The WTA lists a US$2.788-million purse for the Aug. 7-13 event in Montreal. The ATP event in Toronto has a purse of $7.623 million.
Tennis Canada projects WTA prize money to rise from about 32 per cent of the ATP prize money to nearly 60 per cent by 2025, 78 per cent in 2026, and 100 per cent by 2027.
“Today is a special day to be a Canadian tennis player,” said Vancouver’s Rebecca Marino. “I’m so proud of the work Tennis Canada and National Bank have put into paving the pathway to equal prize money.
“The announcement of parity by 2027 is a huge step forward for women in Canada and I hope this can lay the foundation for more progress and an even brighter future for the girls who enter our sport.”
The ATP announced last year that several tournaments, including the National Bank Open, would expand to 12-day main draw events and adopt a structure closer to the one used at Grand Slams.
In addition to the Canadian tournament, the WTA also plans to adopt the extended format at events in Rome and Cincinnati. Fields will increase to 96 players from the current 56.
In Olympic years, the National Bank Open, like the Cincinnati event (in mid-August), will revert to a seven- or eight-day competition due to the more compact schedule. Paris will host the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Tennis Canada and the tours decided to implement the new structure starting in 2025, the federation said, to ensure three consecutive years under the new format before the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 27, 2023.
