In 1993, the ATP, the professional men’s tennis circuit, asked its nine top tournaments, the Super 9* (now the Masters 1000 tournaments), to host at least one Challenger-level tournament with a total prize pool of $50,000 US to offer more quality competitions for up-and-coming players. Since Tennis Canada already had a Super 9 tournament (held alternately in Montreal and Toronto), it needed to create a Challenger circuit tournament.
Thus, the first editions of the tournament took place in Montebello in 1993 and 1994, following an agreement with Château Montebello and its owner, Canadian National (CN).
However, at the beginning of 1995, Tennis Canada was unable to renew its initial agreement with Château Montebello. Consequently, with only two months to go before its scheduled date, the Challenger officially moved to Granby, and despite a rather tight schedule, it was a resounding success. At the time, the City of Granby was impressed by the tournament’s presentation and agreed to provide significant financial support to host the event long-term. Nearly 27 years later, and after many changes, this partnership is still in place!
In 2011, a women’s event with a $25,000 US prize pool and sanctioned by the International Tennis Federation was added to the tournament. This addition notably allowed Quebec’s Eugenie Bouchard to win her first professional tournament the following year, in 2012.
In 2019, the Granby Challenger was able to double the prize amounts, offering now $100,000 for men and $50,000 for women.
In 2022, the Granby tournament was transformed again, becoming the National Bank Championships, a mixed event featuring a WTA 250 category tournament and an ATP Challenger Tour event. The National Bank Championships in Granby thus joined a group of about thirty WTA 250 tournaments held around the world, including in Sydney, Lyon, Istanbul, Prague, and Seoul.
Finally, in 2023, the Championships reverted to a mixed Challenger tournament, featuring both a men’s ATP Challenger Tour event and a women’s ITF World Tennis Tour event, becoming the highest-profile Challenger tournament in the country.
The National Bank Championships in Granby thus return to their traditional mission of being a springboard for Canadian athletes seeking international careers, as experienced by Milos Raonic, Eugenie Bouchard, Bianca Andreescu, Leylah Fernandez, Denis Shapovalov, and Félix Auger-Aliassime before them.
