The Pan American games of 2015 are taking place in Toronto, Canada over the next two weeks. Most Torontonians are unaware of the magnitude of the games with over 7,000 athletes from 41 countries participating, and are primarily concerned that the HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lanes now require three occupants in the car as opposed to the normal two.

Does Anyone Care About Pan Am Tennis?

The tennis venue is the newly renamed Aviva Centre, a venue that is the home of Tennis Canada and plays host to the Rogers Cup ATP and WTA event every summer.

Although it was a bit of a challenge to locate the schedule of matches and match results online, the discovery ultimately proved useless as updates were inaccurate or nonexistent. Scores are also reported without actual set scores, so a match win appears as 2-0, providing little info as to whether it was two blowout sets or two tightly contested sets.

Arriving at Centre Court to watch a quarterfinal men’s doubles match, it was disappointing to see an almost empty stadium. It was also disappointing to learn that the men’s gold medal match was played at 11am–way before most spectators arrived at the tennis centre. Also conspicuously absent from the stadium were the large electronic scoreboards usually stationed high above the stands. Trying to figure out which team was representing which country proved difficult, as the only scoreboard visible was so small it was impossible to read the score and therefore determine which team was the serving team. Watching the match it quickly became clear that electronic line review was not being used for the match although it is used during the Roger’s Cup.

Heading over to the Grandstand Court to watch the Canadian ladies play doubles, as was posted on the schedule, we arrived to an empty court. No schedule postings were anywhere to be seen, and we were surprised when the teams finally showed up that it was not the Canadians match.

The match turned out to be a quarterfinal match between Argentina and the United States. This court provided even more of a challenge for the spectators as there was no scoreboard at all, making it a difficult to keep track of the match unless you were totally focussed. The match played in front of maybe 50 spectators was tightly contested with the Argentinians winning in straight sets. As a spectator it was a great opportunity to sit courtside and really get the feel of the ball speed.

As the match neared its conclusion a small crowd began filling in the seats in anticipation of the Canadian ladies match, only to hear an announcement that the match would be played on Centre Court. Checking the online schedule that had been updated showed that there would be two mixed doubles matches on centre court followed by the ladies match at 9pm, four hours later.

Settling in to watch the mixed doubles match we were surprised when onto the court walked the Canadian ladies doubles team and their opponents, the Argentinian victors from the match just finished. Centre Court was sparsely populated but the crowd present did their best to cheer the Canadian duo to victory. The Canadians played a much more aggressive game than their opponents and won in two straightforward sets.

As there are no ranking points for this tournament and no prize money to be won, top tour players are not interested in playing. However, several of the teams had lower ranked tour players on their rosters and upcoming young players. The matches that I watched were well played and it was a great way to enjoy a beautiful summer day.

Tuning into television coverage of the Pan Am games, there has been no mention, let alone coverage, of the tennis matches. Checking the tennis page of the Canadian sports station TSN app, there was no mention of the tennis and the featured story was about Serena’s withdrawal from a tournament in Sweden.

As I see it, this was a huge opportunity to promote the sport of tennis in Canada and support our upcoming players. The empty stadium could have been filled with children that are attending tennis camps in the Greater Toronto Area; there is no better way to inspire the next generation of players. Although the matches I watched were highly entertaining, I was really disappointed by the overall promotion and organization of the event.

And just in case you do care, here are the results:

Men’s Singles – Gold – Facundo Bagnis, Argentina, Silver – Nicolas Barrientos, Columbia, Bronze – Dennis Novikov, United States

Men’s Doubles – Gold – Jarry/Podlipnik, Chile, Silver – Andreozzi/Bagnis, Argentina, Bronze – Escobar/Gomez, Ecuador

Women’s Singles – Gold – M. Duque Marino, Columbia, Silver – Victoria Rodriguez, Mexico, Bronze – Monica Puig, Puerto Rico

Women’s Doubles – Gold – Dabrowski/Zhao, Canada, Silver – Rodriguez/Zacarias, Mexico, Bronze – Irigoyen/Ormaechea, Argentina

Mixed Doubles – Gold – Andreozzi/Irigoyen, Argentina, Silver – Bester/Dabrowski, Canada, Bronze – Cepede/Galeano, Paraguay

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