Tennis Canada, organizer of the Nationwide Financial institution Open offered by Rogers (NBO), is happy to announce the Highway to the NBO, an modern competitors designed to extend engagement and participation within the skilled tournaments held in Canada. For the primary time, a singles main-draw wild card to the NBO will probably be awarded to the Canadian man and girl who’ve gathered essentially the most factors within the nationwide occasions previous Canada’s premier worldwide tennis match. The 2025 version of the NBO will probably be held from July 26 to August 7 with the WTA heading to Montreal and Toronto internet hosting the ATP.
“This new competitors is certain to construct the joy within the months main as much as the 2025 Nationwide Financial institution Open, and we will’t wait to see the way it interprets onto the courtroom,” mentioned Valérie Tétreault, Event Director of the NBO in Montreal.
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“Not solely will we consider that it is a unbelievable strategy to elevate our Canadian occasions, however it would additionally create some fascinating and provoking storylines within the run-up to our largest match of the yr. For the gamers themselves, the Highway to the NBO presents a singular alternative to showcase their abilities on residence soil and in the end offers everybody an equal probability of incomes a spot in the primary draw of our world-class occasion.”
So, how does the Highway to the NBO work?
ROAD TO THE NBO FORMAT
The Highway to the NBO is already underway, as skilled occasions organized after the 2024 version of the NBO have been factored into the present standings. Due to this fact, the competitors kicked off for the ladies the week of August 19, 2024, whereas the lads began their wild-card race the week of October 7, 2024. Kayla Cross at present sits atop the standings for the Montreal wild card with 120 factors, and Liam Draxl leads the lads’s competitors with 72 factors.
The factors system used to find out the standings is predicated on the ATP and WTA singles rating factors earned by every participant on the devoted occasions. So as to add to the anticipation and to reward in-form gamers come summertime, the occasions held in July will probably be value double the factors. Within the occasion of a tie, the participant who’s ranked the very best following the replace on July 21, 2025, will obtain the wild card. If the participant on the high of the standings by the tip of the competitors can’t take part on the NBO, or has already acquired direct entry into the match, the wild card will probably be allotted to the subsequent participant with essentially the most factors.
As well as, the participant with the second-most factors within the males’s Highway to the NBO standings will obtain a wild card into the NBO qualifiers. On the ladies’s aspect, given the excessive degree of competitors amongst gamers, Tennis Canada has confirmed its intention to host a pre-qualifying match to find out two extra wild playing cards for the NBO. The participant who finishes first will obtain a wild card into the singles fundamental draw, whereas the runner-up will obtain a qualifying wild card. The 2025 Highway to the NBO champion won’t participate within the occasion. Extra particulars relating to the pre-qualifying match will probably be introduced sooner or later.
Listed here are the present standings as of Feb. 24, 2025:
“The Nationwide Financial institution Open is getting into a brand new period, with its expanded 12-day format and 96-player fundamental draw, which has opened the door for us to discover completely different and inventive methods of allocating our wild playing cards,” mentioned Guillaume Marx, Vice-President of Excessive Efficiency at Tennis Canada.
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“We now have eight main-draw wild playing cards for the WTA occasion and 5 on the ATP aspect, giving us the chance to create the Highway to the NBO, an idea we’ve thought-about doing for a few years. One factor we’ve at all times mentioned is how essential our Canadian skilled occasions are to the expansion of the sport and the skilled pipeline in our nation, and this competitors solely reinforces that perception. Gamers will now have much more causes to play at residence, and we will’t wait to see how issues unfold because the summer time approaches.”
Ladies’s Highway to the NBO (Montreal)
Males’s Highway to the NBO (Toronto)
*Tournaments are value double factors within the Highway to the NBO standings.
The following occasions that can rely within the Highway to the NBO will happen the primary week of March, with the lads competing in Sherbrooke, QC and the ladies in Trois-Rivières, QC.
To view the present standings and to comply with the Highway to the NBO, click on right here.
