Tennis Canada received single-largest donation of $3 million from long-time supporters, The Green Fischer Family Trust

Tennis Canada announced on Friday that it had received the single-largest donation in the organization’s history from long-time supporters of tennis in Canada, The Green Fischer Family Trust.

George Fischer, and his late wife Karen, first became major donors to Tennis Canada’s kids’ tennis programs in 2015, before they created the Future Champions Fund in 2018 to help Canada’s top athletes offset the costs associated with high-performance development. In 2020, Tennis Canada announced its indoor and outdoor Junior Nationals would be renamed the Fischer Junior Nationals following the trust’s $1 million investment into the tournaments.

This latest, record-breaking donation of $3 million will drive new facility development projects which would not otherwise have been possible. The long-term vision for the investment is to create two year-round tennis facilities to increase accessibility to the sport for their communities in the Greater Toronto Area. These facilities will provide much-needed programming and tournament opportunities for youth tennis participants, while one of them will serve as a satellite home for the National Junior Training Program which currently operates out of Sobeys Stadium, providing increased access to court time.

“Tennis in Canada has never been stronger,” George Fischer commented, “and we need to harness the sport’s popularity to increase participation and accessibility at the community level. This will also lead to the development of more high-performance players so that Canadians can win more Grand Slams, Olympic medals and Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup titles. We cannot wait to see the impact it will have.”

“We cannot be more grateful to our long-time supporters, The Green Fischer Family Trust,” said Michael Downey, Chief Executive Officer of Tennis Canada. “This donation represents the single-largest in our organization’s history and it will go a long way to supporting growth of the sport as well as the development of the talented juniors who are part of our programs. George’s generosity cannot be understated, nor can his passion to see the sport flourish and Canadians succeed at the highest level.”

This year’s U18s Fischer Junior Nationals will be played in conjunction with the National Bank Open presented by Rogers in Toronto in August. The champion will be presented with their trophy by George Fischer during a ceremony on Centre Court at Sobeys Stadium, in between the doubles and singles finals of the ATP Masters 1000 event.