Tennis Canada introduced on Friday that it had acquired the single-largest donation within the group’s historical past from long-time supporters of tennis in Canada, The Inexperienced Fischer Household Belief.
George Fischer, and his late spouse Karen, first grew to become main donors to Tennis Canada’s children’ tennis applications in 2015, earlier than they created the Future Champions Fund in 2018 to assist Canada’s high athletes offset the prices related to high-performance improvement. In 2020, Tennis Canada introduced its indoor and out of doors Junior Nationals could be renamed the Fischer Junior Nationals following the belief’s $1 million funding into the tournaments.
This newest, record-breaking donation of $3 million will drive new facility improvement initiatives which might not in any other case have been attainable. The long-term imaginative and prescient for the funding is to create two year-round tennis amenities to extend accessibility to the game for his or her communities within the Better Toronto Space. These amenities will present much-needed programming and match alternatives for youth tennis contributors, whereas considered one of them will function a satellite tv for pc dwelling for the Nationwide Junior Coaching Program which presently operates out of Sobeys Stadium, offering elevated entry to courtroom time.
“Tennis in Canada has by no means been stronger,” George Fischer commented, “and we have to harness the game’s recognition to extend participation and accessibility on the group degree. This can even result in the event of extra high-performance gamers in order that Canadians can win extra Grand Slams, Olympic medals and Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup titles. We can’t wait to see the affect it’s going to have.”
“We can’t be extra grateful to our long-time supporters, The Inexperienced Fischer Household Belief,” stated Michael Downey, Chief Govt Officer of Tennis Canada. “This donation represents the single-largest in our group’s historical past and it’ll go a protracted technique to supporting progress of the game in addition to the event of the gifted juniors who’re a part of our applications. George’s generosity can’t be understated, nor can his ardour to see the game flourish and Canadians succeed on the highest degree.”
This 12 months’s U18s Fischer Junior Nationals shall be performed at the side of the Nationwide Financial institution Open offered by Rogers in Toronto in August. The champion shall be offered with their trophy by George Fischer throughout a ceremony on Centre Courtroom at Sobeys Stadium, in between the doubles and singles finals of the ATP Masters 1000 occasion.