Tennis Canada Burnishes the Rogers Cup

August 12, 2007 - Every 'product' gets a facelift every once in awhile - whether it needs it or not. Whether it needs it is, of course, in the eye of the beholder.

Take tennis racquets for example- no, let's start with golf clubs. Take golf clubs. Last year you bought the newest, heavily-promoted and endorsed 'rocket launching' driver. From Taylor Made, Callaway, Nike ... etc. Was it really any better, for you, than the one you had? Or was it another case of 'it's usually only as good as the guy that's swinging it.' The same goes for tennis racquets and a lot of other stuff. The existing model or that of the year before or the year before that may have performed perfectly, but the manufacturer knows that we, the buying public, are inexorably attracted by the siren call of: New .... Improved ..... longer .... stronger ..... faster .... better looking .... sexier ..... and a phalanx of other adjectives.

So, it's up to us to make a logical, reasoned judgment about whether we need that 'new' product or not. Sometimes it IS better, new technology or materials or rule changes can affect the performance of the product. Today's golf balls do fly further and the new generation of golf clubs do make longer distance available, if you can produce the right swing. Modern tennis racquet technology has led to harder hitting, effective if you perfect the strokes and achieve a sufficiently high degree of fitness.

Tennis tournaments can be engineered to be more interesting and entertaining for fans and spectators. The core remains the 'field’, the players, who are attracted to play in the tournament. But beyond that the organizers of a tournament can offer enhancements which package and showcase the quality of play to be more interesting and exciting. Tennis Canada has been good at that for the past number of years and the Rogers Cup (both in Montreal with the ATP Tour this year and in Toronto where the WTA Tour returns) is at it again.

Toronto is rolling out quite a menu of attractions as 'value added' for the purchasers of tickets to the August event. Among these attractions are a promising Exhibition Match on Monday night which brings John McEnroe back to a Canadian court. Johnny Mac will be joined by Jim Courier, Carling Bassett-Seguso and Anna Kournikova for some tennis and hi jinks to 'officially' open the 2007 women's Rogers Cup. As the week runs along there'll be three days of fascinating fashion shows and fan-participation contests and games.

One of the most significant 'new' elements at the Toronto tournament this year is the involvement of Karl Hale of the Donalda Club as the new Toronto Tournament Director. It's the personable pro's first crack at this role in one of the sport's major events. He'll put his own stamp on the Rogers Cup to some degree ... and fortunately has a great tournament staff in place to make all the regular attractions and all the new stuff come off as it's supposed to.

This'll be a good year to spend some time at the Rogers Cup in Toronto.

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