Milos Raonic of Canada holds his runner's up trophy after being beaten by Andy Murray of Britain in the men's singles final on the fourteenth day of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Sunday, July 10, 2016.Kirsty Wigglesworth/The Associated Press
Early Sunday morning, Jocelyn Robichaud packed his kids – Julien, 6, and Vincent, 4 – into the family's minivan and headed to a bar in east-end Montreal.
Don't get the wrong idea: Their destination was La Cage Brasserie Sportive, where the family was keen to watch Milos Raonic play in the gentlemen's singles final of the Wimbledon tennis tournament.
Almost 100 die-hard tennis fans, many employees and volunteers with Tennis Canada and the Rogers Cup tournament, and most sporting tennis whites, gathered at the sports bar to enjoy its drive-in-sized screen.
They cheered every point by Raonic and groaned every time Andy Murray inched closer to victory. They even tried to hush the Wimbledon crowd from afar when they were too noisy during the Canadian player's serves.
Robichaud, a long-time coach at the national training centre in Montreal, juggled cheering and answering a steady stream of questions from his boys.
He knows Raonic better than most, having trained and travelled with him when he was a junior tennis player, aged 16 to 18, training at the National Centre for Excellence in Montreal.
But seven years later, as his former student was centre stage at the world's most prestigious tournament, Robichaud was more interested in his kids, and his current crop of aspiring tennis pros, drinking in the atmosphere, than in analyzing the nitty-gritty of the match.
"Seeing Milos at Wimbledon shows them that being a champion is possible," he said. "It gives them someone to look up to."
More important, Robichaud said, it changes the culture of tennis in Canada. Whereas almost every Canadian kid who laces up skates harbours dreams, however fleeting, of playing in the NHL, most who pick up a racquet still see it only as a pastime.
"But when you add this dimension of excellence, a Canadian star, it changes everything," Robichaud said.
In this, a golden age of tennis in Canada with the emergence of high-profile global stars such as Raonic, Eugenie Bouchard and Vasek Pospisil, the excitement is driving people to the courts in droves.
About 6.5 million Canadians played tennis at least once in 2014, up 32 per cent from 2012, according to a survey commissioned by Tennis Canada, and there is every indication that the number has climbed even higher in the past couple of years.
Interest is particularly high among young people, with more than 600,000 children aged 6 to 11 picking up a racquet each year.
Eugène Lapierre, director of the Rogers Cup and Quebec vice-president of professional tennis at Tennis Canada, said Raonic's historic appearance in the Wimbledon final "is a wonderful thing for tennis in Canada."
"Creating champions like Milos is not our ultimate goal but it's part of our ultimate goal, which is to make tennis the sport of a lifetime for Canadians," Lapierre said.
"This is a sport you can start by 6 or 7 and play until you're 80 and beyond. But for that to happen, we have to get people interested, and events like this one really help," he said.
It will also help promote sales of tickets for the Rogers Cup, which takes place in Toronto (men) and Montreal (women), from July 23 to 31.
Katherine Tanguay, who has been a volunteer at the Rogers Cup and other tennis tournaments for 30 years, describes herself as a tennis maniac. She hopes the appearance of Raonic in the Wimbledon final will attract other fans.
But, like others who watched the final on Sunday morning, she was sad to see him lose. "He played well, but Andy Murray just played better," Tanguay said with a shrug.
"But I'm sure he'll be back in the final," she added. "And I hope I can be there. My dream is to go to Wimbledon and see a Canadian win."
André Picard