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Tournament directors understandably happy about Rogers Cup success in Montreal and Toronto

stephanie myles

MONTREAL – Eugène Lapierre was the more effusive of the two Rogers Cup tournament directors as he wrapped up a record-setting week at the Montreal women's event. But it was a close race.

"We had 40,000 spectators from Friday on for the weekend. People came en masse. We also had some drama with the power failure. That allowed us to test the teams, who responded very well. We would have loved for Eugenie (Bouchard) to go further, but the big names of tennis were right there," Lapierre said. "Venus (Williams) was the story of the week. She charmed the Montrealers."

Montreal set a record for the women's event, at 181,996 fans for the week. There is no women-only event in the world that comes close; even Toronto suffers a far more significant dropoff for the women versus the men, although it still posts impressive numbers by WTA Tour standards. So the Montreal event keeps breaking its own record, which has stood at 174,706 since 2006.

Inherent in that number this time around was the Bouchard factor, as the 20-year-old homegirl's stellar 2014 season helped ensure enough advance sales that the tournament balanced its budget by Monday, and knew it was on the way to a record.

But there were still seats available so there was, and is, room for growth. "I'm sure that a lot of people would have wanted to come and see Eugenie throughout the week. That's obvious. I don't know how many. I don't know that," Lapierre said. "I hope I'll see that next time."

In Toronto, tournament director Karl Hale said he didn't have the final reports, so he couldn't be specific. "We are still tallying numbers. We had a very, very successful event. We are very, very happy with the numbers we achieved, so we are just waiting for the finals to be completed today and we will have a final tally," Hale said.

As in Montreal, top Canadian male player Milos Raonic was a factor. Perhaps even more of one, since he went all the way to the quarter-finals while Bouchard lost her first match. "Obviously Milos has been in the news a tremendous amount the past couple of months, had a tremendous impact on sales. He's a Canadian hero, an icon here, so he had a tremendous influence on ticket sales this week," Hale said.

Despite the premature losses by the top seeds (Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka, Maria Sharapova, Petra Kvitova), the Toronto event still boasted a crowd-pleasing tournament final with No. 2 seed Roger Federer and flashy No. 13 seed (and champion) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

In Montreal, Venus Williams was the story. And the presence of both Williams sisters for the first time in their careers (until this year, they had a total of one Montreal Rogers Cup appearance between them, all the way back in 2000 by Serena), ensured something fresh and new for the fans. They were awed by the sisters' power and speed.

Venus Williams's improbable run to the final quickly made her a fan favourite. Bouchard quickly became a footnote although two years from now, on her current career arc, she will be just as big a deal – if not bigger.

The tennis, putting aside some of the more surprising upsets of the top seeds, was of tremendous quality.

"We had 21 matches in three sets up till (Saturday), which means that more than half the matches were in three sets. This goes to the depth of the tour," Lapierre said.

The secondary Banque Nationale Court in Montreal saw its share of drama, with play ending after 12:30 a.m. Wednesday after qualifier Heather Watson upset No. 10 seed (and former Montreal finalist) Dominika Cibulkova in a third-set tiebreak and No. 7 seed Jelena Jankovic edged out Sloane Stephens in a third set tiebreak. Another qualifier, Coco Vandeweghe, upset No. 9 seed Ana Ivanovic 6-7, 7-6, 6-4.

As for the power issues that plagued the Montreal event Tuesday through Wednesday, there definitely were financial losses, Lapierre said. The catering for Tuesday, to supply the restaurants for the workers and the food in the private loges, was basically a writeoff although they were able to quickly set up a small generator to get the ticketing system up and running as soon as possible.

The weather, overall, was fairly cooperative. There were delays on Monday in Toronto, and a few stoppages in play in Montreal. But the last few days were picture perfect and unlike some previous editions, there were never any concerns the tournament would get too far behind schedule.

The only downside of the tournament, as has been the case every year since it was decided by the powers-that-be that the women and men would play the same week, is that it was nearly impossible for media, and fans in either city, to follow both. Each event warrants, and deserves, its own separate spotlight.