Tennis Canada Partners with Beneva to Launch their Second Year of the "Mental Timeout" Initiative

Tennis Canada announced its partnership with Beneva, Canada's largest mutual insurance company, to continue their mental health initiative, “The Mental Timeout.”

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I spoke to Valerie Tetreault, the first female Tournament Director of the Omnium Banque Nationale in Montreal, to speak more on this partnership and the initiative! (note: interview has been slightly edited for clarity).

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So tell us more about The Mental Timeout Initiative now that it’s heading into its second year and what this partnership means.

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Well, it means a lot, I think. Last year, the importance was to start doing something for mental health and the athlete’s well-being, and so I think we had the right platform with the National Bank Open to start acting on that, and now, obviously, with this new partnership with Beneva we’re creating a little bit more resources and the goal is to be better, do a little bit more again for the players, for the fans, because as you know, it’s a high priority and something we talk about more. Just last week, I was reading about Amanda Anisimova, an American player who needs to take a break because of mental health issues and I think we’re going to continue seeing at all levels of the sport.

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There are different elements to this program, like Tennis Therapy and the Positive Pledge - can you give us some insight on how those came together?

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Yes, I’ll start with the Positive Court Pledge because I absolutely like this initiative. The goal was to kind of force a conversation about mental health but also the importance of creating a safe and positive environment for the players. What we want is for people who are part of this tournament who are either watching the tournament on-site but maybe also at home on TV or even following the action on social media to understand the role that they need to play in creating that safe and positive environment. 

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Tennis is an individual sport, so when you show up on court you can be vulnerable and when players are sometimes dealing with some issues that we don’t know about, sometimes, just like us, they had a very bad day at work, but obviously they had that bad day at work in front of a lot of people and so we want the fans to understand that, to respect that and be a little more positive, especially on social media and on the web where we’ve seen a lot of the bullying of the athletes and I think that in the end if we’re able to do that then everybody will benefit from it because with a more positive environment, the players will feel a little bit better and will be able to play better which will bring a better show in the end on the court.

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Bianca Andreescu, Alexis Galarneau, and Rob Shaw are all named as ambassadors for this program…what does this mean for the representation of Canadian tennis and the environment of the sport?

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It’s great to have ambassadors like the three of them because the first thing that they do is they show the younger athletes and all athletes that it’s okay to talk about it and that we should all feel comfortable talking about it. [Bianca] was the first ambassador of this initiative last year. At the beginning of the year, she spoke pretty openly about some of the struggles that she went through, getting actually close to thinking about retiring from the sport. She’s so young; she has so much potential. We know all the great things that she can do and just the fact that you can talk about it without necessarily being judged but it needs to bring the right support, the needed support and that’s why it was so important. 

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This year we wanted more ambassadors because the first thing we were trying to show was that it’s not a problem or an issue that you see on the women’s circuit. You can also be a male player and struggle with mental health issues and so we’re really happy that Alexis Galarneau was open to becoming an ambassador and with Rob [Shaw] being our top wheelchair player, we feel like now we have the right representation at all levels.

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Lastly, you are the first woman to be the tournament director in Montreal. What does that mean to you, and what has your experience been like so far?

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I’ll be honest with you, I never thought in my life that I would be the first woman to do anything and so it kind of came as a surprise. I guess my first reaction to that was that I’m just hoping that in a couple of years from now that won’t even be necessarily like a statistic that we need to mention because there will be more women acting as tournament director. But obviously, it’s a great honour, it’s a great challenge. I’m really looking forward to my first tournament…I’ve been at Tennis Canada a long time and so I’ve been involved with the National Bank Open many times but this is going to feel a little bit new, a little bit like living my first tournament again and I’m really excited. I think the women’s game is in a really great place right now, we see it with the quality of tennis, there are some rivalries that are kind of building up and so I’m anxious to welcome the top players in August.

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To sign the Positive Court Pledge, click here. The Omnium Banque Nationale will take place in Montreal from August 4-13, 2023. Get your tickets now.