It was a strange night for Canadian tennis at the 2025 National Bank Open. While the focus was on former Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard of Montreal, who was playing her final WTA match of her career against former Olympic champion Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, the fact that at least the first set featuring the top Canadian men’s tennis player Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal, was not seen at all on English television in Canada was completely mind-boggling and gobsmacking beyond belief.
The entire Auger-Aliassime match was seen on Canadian television, but you could only understand it if you spoke French. The complete match in Toronto was shown on TVA Sports. Auger-Aliassime did not play very well, as he was upset by Hungary’s Fabian Marozsan, 6-4, 6-4.
To put things into perspective for our Australian readership. Imagine if Alex de Minaur’s second round match at the Australian Open was not seen on television in Australia. That would never happen or there would be a national out roar.
A similar circumstance what happened in Canada tonight. The bottom line is Rogers Sportsnet failed Canada’s top tennis player in getting the media attention he deserved. With the tournament being expanded to a 12 day tournament, in the first week of the tournament there is no national television production like we have seen the last few decades. Due to Rogers Sportsnet deprioritizing tennis in their budget, they are using the international feed instead. Tonight the international feed showed the match between Arthur Fils of France and Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain. Did Canadian television viewers care? Not really as the international feed did not show the match on centre court. Time will tell if Sportsnet will issue an apology to Canadian tennis fans.
