Hatem McDadi, Senior Vice-President of High-Performance Development, announces retirement

McDadi’s last day will be December 31, 2023, though he will continue on part-time, consultancy basis through June 2024

Tennis Canada announced on Wednesday that Hatem McDadi, Senior Vice-President of High-Performance Development, will retire at the end of December 2023. McDadi will continue on a part-time, consultancy basis until June 30, 2024 to assist in the recruitment and transition of his replacement.

“It has been an honor and privilege to have served Canadian tennis over the years,” McDadi said. “The growth of our not-for-profit mission with partners, development of a Canadian sport system, heroic players that have worked so hard to reach their potential and pave the way, winning Olympic gold, Parapan Am gold, Grand Slam champions and the 2022 Davis Cup win are special. But the journey and the moments with all involved is what will be cherished the most. I am grateful and proud for all the passionate, skilled, and caring colleagues, board, senior management team, provincial and private sector partners, community leaders and champions that helped make Canadian tennis strong and vibrant.”

He added: “The past and present leaders helped build our great sport and the historic results have been a collective effort. Special thanks to Michael [Downey], our senior management teams, and the board over the years for thinking big, bold, and believing. Lastly, we are very fortunate to have a superb high performance leadership team, staff, and coaches in place as the future is poised for more historic results with this leadership team in place. I will miss many special people and I’m grateful for the memories and moments together”.

Having joined Tennis Canada full time in 1999, McDadi has spent almost 25 years with the organization, driving its high-performance and tennis development programs to unparalleled success. Under his leadership, the list of high-performance milestones Canadian tennis has achieved is unmatched in its 133-year history. Team Canada presented by Sobeys’ maiden Davis Cup triumph in 2022, Canada’s first Grand Slam singles title won by Bianca Andreescu at the 2019 US Open, and Olympic Gold medals for Daniel Nestor and Sebastien Lareau at Sydney 2000 – where McDadi was coaching from the sidelines – rank as some of the highlights of his tenure.

His extensive list of accomplishments also includes playing an integral role in gaining the funding and approvals for the National Tennis Centre presented by Rogers as well as regional U15 programs in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal; the creation and launch of a unified tournament ranking and management system in collaboration with the Provincial and Territorial Tennis Associations (PTTA); and the launch of Kids Tennis in Canada including over 500 newly-created events for U10s. McDadi also built a world-class team of coaches, fitness experts and sports-science specialists, all of whom have contributed significantly to Canada’s rise to become a world-leading tennis nation.

“It has been an honour and pleasure to work with Hatem over the past two decades,” said Micheal Downey, Chief Executive Officer, Tennis Canada, who will also step down at the end of 2023. “His tireless work ethic, wide ranging expertise and compassion and empathy for others will be sorely missed. His legacy at Tennis Canada is truly unmatched, as is his passion for Canadian tennis. Hatem truly embodies our corporate values of passion, excellence, integrity, innovation, teamwork and accountability. We wish him well in his retirement but are glad he has decided to continue in a part-time, consultancy role until June 2024.”

Prior to his time at Tennis Canada, McDadi was an accomplished player. He reached a career-high ranking of No. 226 on the ATP Tour in 1985 and before that was an U18 Canadian Junior National champion in both singles and doubles. Following his playing career, McDadi co-owned a tennis academy and went on to coach Canadian tennis stars Rene Simpson and the aforementioned 12-time Grand Slam doubles champion Nestor.