TORONTO – Carl Hill has been the Tournament Director of the National Bank Open since 2006 and hasn’t seen anything like the last 24 hours since Serena Williams said she was ending her professional tennis career.
“We heard that yesterday morning, and immediately ticket sales rebounded,” Hill said. “In the players’ lounge, I heard the chatter. It’s the first time I’ve seen so many players watching a practice. I trained at nine in the morning, and everyone there was watching it.”
Williams, who will play a second-round match against Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic on Wednesday night, may play for the last time in front of Canadian tennis fans at this tournament.
“But I hope it doesn’t,” said Hill, who has known Serena and her sister Venus for more than 20 years since they started coming to Toronto.
Williams farewell tour In progress, started with “as required” Fashion cover story For the September issue that went online on Tuesday, “Serena’s Farewell.” Williams wrote that she plans to retire from tennis at least sometime after that Playing in the US Openwhich begins on August 29.
“I am developing away from tennis, towards other things that are important to me,” including working with her Her venture capital company And her family is growing, she said.
“I’m going to enjoy these next few weeks,” Williams wrote on Instagram.
The National Bank Open is the only Canadian stop for the WTA and ATP tours each August, splitting men’s and women’s events between Toronto and Montreal and alternating cities each year. Suddenly, Williams’ game Wednesday night in Toronto became the most exciting ticket in the sport.
Hill said that after news of the retirement spread, the tournament sold more tickets for the Williams-Bencic match than it had for any of the men’s matches, famous for a tournament that began in 1881, making it as old as Canada itself. (Canada was founded in 1867, and the women’s championship began in 1892.)
He said the round of 32 match also became a bigger draw than the entire 2017 Women’s Championship.
Wayne Gretzky, the greatest hockey player of all time, reached out right away and sent out a video wishing the best women’s tennis all the best. Another video is expected to arrive from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, both of which will be shown at an earlier celebration of Williams, her career and time in Canada.
Hill was buried in interview requests with Williams – the answer was “no” – and requests for tickets from athletes, musicians and actors who are currently filming in the city – the answer was a somewhat “yes.”
“We had nowhere left,” Hill said.
“It will be a really touching night for her,” he said. “She’s not sure how to deal with it, but it will happen in the moment before the match.”
He said the plan was for Williams not to watch the video messages, but to go to court only after a standing ovation, as he didn’t want to distract her from the match.
The stadium north of downtown will crowd 10,000 fans, and the tournament creates an outdoor viewing area – for the first time – for another 5,000 people.
Hill had a four-hour dinner at Harbor 60, an expensive Toronto steakhouse, with Serena and Venus Williams on Saturday night.
“She didn’t tell me the Vogue article was coming, but she did say retirement was imminent,” he said. All signs were definitely pointing to the US Open’s retirement. She is really ready to move on to the next chapter of her new life. She’s excited, not sad, but she’s going to be very emotional tonight. I don’t think he hit her yet.”
During her straight sets win over Spain’s Nuria Barezas Diaz on Monday, many fans stood on their feet and bowed to Williams.
After the match, Williams telegraphed a Vogue article that was hours after the fall, saying she was “close to light” and “freedom”.
She is clearly enjoying it. Over the weekend before the tournament kicks off, she and her husband, Alexis Ohanian, and their daughter Olympia, He went to the Middle AgesTheatrical performance with crowns and swords. Then on Monday she won for the first time in over a year. “I forgot how I felt,” she said.
It was the first time Olympia had sat in a full match, and her mother—who was four—given after her victory. “I was really excited,” Williams said. “It was good for her to have that memory. She never got it because I always kept her away.”
Andreescu, who beat Williams in 2019 US Open Finalrecalled her post-match romance with Williams after her straight sets win over Russia’s Daria Kasatkina on Tuesday night.
“In Toronto, we had a nice chat, and at the US Open she said some nice things to me in the locker room,” Andreescu said. She added that she was “grateful to have the chance to play it and connect with her in some way. Maybe I’ll get another one.”
With Williams winding down her career, a scarcity mentality began to emerge. Only a few tickets for Wednesday’s game with distributors are listed, indicating that what could be Williams’ last Canadian game isn’t for sale at any price.
Williams’ players on the tour are also fearful of missing out. Coco Gauff, Emma Radocano and Canadians Laila Fernandez, Rebecca Marino and Carol Zaw have never played against Williams and sadly said they hope to share the court with her before it’s too late.
Williams has won this tournament three times, all in Toronto.
“It was like, OK, I want to play a few more games,” she said on Monday. “And I absolutely love playing here. It’s no secret that I had a great time on court and probably the best time off the field here in Toronto.”
Depending on how she performs against 12th seed Bencic, the spotlight and fans will continue to follow Williams from here to Cincinnati, and then to New York, where she won her first Grand Slam singles title in 1999 as a 17-year-old.
Marino said it was fitting for Williams to play at least one more time in the US Open, and that it would be a perfect farewell to the sport. “This, I think, is the place to do it,” she said.
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