TORONTO — There are no immediate plans for Toronto to follow Montreal’s lead on a proposed project that would see a retractable roof installed at IGA Stadium, tournament director Karl Hale said Thursday. Last June, Tennis Canada announced plans to build a new centre-court stadium as part of a major modernization of its facilities at Jarry Park. The organization conducted a yearlong feasibility study to examine options for the long-term future of the National Bank Open in Montreal. The venue’s centre court last underwent major renovations in 1996. “Toronto was built in 2004, and it’s a newer stadium,” Hale said at his end-of-tournament media availability. “So we’ll focus on Montreal for now.” Wet weather at both events—the WTA Tour was in Toronto this summer, and the ATP Tour stop was in Montreal—forced organizers to pivot throughout the 12-day competitions. Rain forced a delay to the evening semifinal session in Toronto on Wednesday, with the late match finishing around 1 a.m. local time. The 96-player format, now in its second season, leads to a Thursday final rather than a traditional Sunday championship. “We love this championship week, we’ve had great ticket sales,” Hale said. “The players love it because they get the day to rest in the morning and have a great match. As you saw (Wednesday) night, the matches were just unbelievable matches — especially that first match was just really high-quality tennis. “So for now, we’re going to continue this for the foreseeable future.” Poland’s Iga Swiatek defeated Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 and Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan beat American Coco Gauff 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 in the nightcap to earn berths in the final of the US$7.43-million tournament on Thursday night. The proposed Montreal modernization project would boost centre court capacity by about 3,000 to approximately 15,000 seats while adding up to four practice courts and a match court. Next steps include determining the construction timeline, estimated costs and how the project will be funded, Tennis Canada has said. The organization added that discussions with all three levels of government about potential funding were underway. Hale described the women’s National Bank Open as “incredible” this year, noting an estimated total attendance of about 215,000 would be a WTA Toronto record for the city. He added that post-event discussions were planned with English-language rights-holder Sportsnet, which has cut back production to the last half of the tournaments since their expansion to 12 days. French-language rights-holder TVA Sports offers full coverage of the Montreal stop. For the first six days, domestic English broadcast coverage was selected and produced by the WTA and ATP’s world feed, a Tennis Canada spokesperson said. When asked about the limited production, a Sportsnet spokesperson replied via email. “Sportsnet has worked together with Tennis Canada, ATP Media and WTA Media to ensure comprehensive broadcast coverage of this year’s National Bank Open presented by Rogers for Canadian tennis fans, including prioritizing matches featuring Canadian players and the tournament’s biggest stars.” The ATP Tour will shift to Toronto in 2027, the final year of Tennis Canada’s deal with Sportsnet. The WTA Tour will head to Montreal as part of the alternating setup used for the Canadian events. With files from Canadian Press sports reporter Daniel Rainbird in Montreal. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 13, 2026. Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press
