ROGERS CUP FINDS NEW PARTNER IN CONNELL

Selling top tennis professionals on the idea of coming to Canada has often been a problem for the Rogers Cup tournaments in Toronto and Montreal.

That could explain why Tennis Canada chose Grant Connell, a real estate salesman who happens to be a former world No. 1 doubles player, to replace the outgoing Stacey Allaster as tournament director for its two marquee events.

A Regina native who has long lived in Vancouver, Connell won more than 20 ATP Tour events and had a distinguished career representing Canada in Davis Cup play.

Connell, who said he expects to resign his spot on Tennis Canada’s board of directors, also served as executive director of Tennis B. C. and captained Canada’s Davis Cup team.

“ The one thing I’ve learned in the short time I’ve been part of Tennis Canada … if you find someone who has got great people skills and understands the tournament, and was once a wellregarded player, you’ve got a pretty good mix,” said Tennis Canada CEO and president Michael Downey in a phone interview yesterday. “He is extremely well-regarded, especially by the ATP tour because he obviously played on it and he’s got a great relationship with the WTA tour itself.

“ The relationship with the tours is very important because it’s about getting players to tournaments.”

Connell, who turns 40 next month, might not be dealing with properties quite as hot as the West Vancouver homes he handles in his day job.

While the men’s and women’s Rogers Cup events have top-tier status on their respective tours, with purses to match, each has suffered from high-profile no-shows and pullouts in recent years.

Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova were just two of the big names to withdraw from the women’s event in Toronto this year.

The absence of the stars, combined with inclement weather, was reflected in ticket sales.

The week’s attendance of 136,789 was down more than 3,000 from the last women’s tournament in Toronto in 2003 and 30,000 from the previous year’s event in Montreal.

Connell said his primary focus will be on making sure the two events are high priority for players. He plans to travel to different events and tour meetings to try to ensure his tournament is not an easy one to skip because players are burned out or resting up for the U.S. Open, the last major event of the tennis season.

“ A lot of my job will be traveling to different meetings on the WTA tour and the ATP tour and the U.S. Open Series, and it’s just basically about making sure that the tournaments like the Rogers Cup get the top field that they deserve based on prize money and status on the tour.”

Unlike Allaster, who takes over as president of the WTA Tour on Jan. 1, 2006, Connell will not play a huge role in the operations side of the tournaments.

Rather, day-to-day technical and organizational functions will fall to people already working in those areas, with Connell as overseer and chief representative of the two Rogers Cups at tour meetings.

One thing Connell said is not on the agenda is taking the tournaments to different venues across the county. Despite the fact he lives on the West Coast, new stadiums in Toronto and Montreal, combined with the historic support for tennis in those cities, make it almost impossible for the two Rogers Cups to be played anywhere else.

“Montreal and Toronto have a lock on those events and we do a great job,” he said.