Tennis Canada, organizer of the Nationwide Financial institution Open offered by Rogers (NBO), is worked up to announce the Street to the NBO, an progressive 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 likely be awarded to the Canadian man and lady who’ve gathered probably the most factors within the nationwide occasions previous Canada’s premier worldwide tennis match. The 2025 version of the NBO will likely 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 thrill within the months main as much as the 2025 Nationwide Financial institution Open, and we are able to’t wait to see the way it interprets onto the court docket,” mentioned Valérie Tétreault, Match Director of the NBO in Montreal.
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“Not solely will we consider that it is a implausible option to elevate our Canadian occasions, however it’ll additionally create some attention-grabbing and galvanizing storylines within the run-up to our greatest match of the yr. For the gamers themselves, the Street to the NBO affords a singular alternative to showcase their abilities on house soil and finally offers everybody an equal likelihood of incomes a spot in the principle draw of our world-class occasion.”
So, how does the Street to the NBO work?
ROAD TO THE NBO FORMAT
The Street to the NBO is already underway, as skilled occasions organized after the 2024 version of the NBO have been factored into the present standings. Subsequently, 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 presently 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 relies 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 likely be value double the factors. Within the occasion of a tie, the participant who’s ranked the best following the replace on July 21, 2025, will obtain the wild card. If the participant on the prime of the standings by the tip of the competitors can not take part on the NBO, or has already obtained direct entry into the match, the wild card will likely be allotted to the subsequent participant with probably the most factors.
As well as, the participant with the second-most factors within the males’s Street to the NBO standings will obtain a wild card into the NBO qualifiers. On the ladies’s facet, given the excessive stage 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 major draw, whereas the runner-up will obtain a qualifying wild card. The 2025 Street to the NBO champion is not going to participate within the occasion. Extra particulars concerning the pre-qualifying match will likely be introduced in the end.
Listed below 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 major draw, which has opened the door for us to discover totally different and artistic 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 facet, giving us the chance to create the Street to the NBO, an idea we’ve thought-about doing for a few years. One factor we’ve all the time 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 house, and we are able to’t wait to see how issues unfold because the summer time approaches.”
Girls’s Street to the NBO (Montreal)
Males’s Street to the NBO (Toronto)
*Tournaments are value double factors within the Street to the NBO standings.
The subsequent occasions that can rely within the Street 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 observe the Street to the NBO, click on right here.
