The International Junior tennis Canadian Open will be this year in his 25th edition in our town. Such longevity confer to the event a prestige which transcends easily the Quebec and Canadian borders. The most important junior tennis event in the country, the Internationals has a success recognized from all over the world. With over two decades of history and success, a review of where we come from is important.
1986 marked the arrival of the Internationals to Repentigny. However it is not a new competition that the organizing committee inherits. The tournament already had a long history of almost hundred-years-old. Canadian Lawn Tennis Association authorized the holding of a first male event to least than 18 years old in 1895. The winners will however be listed only from 1918, the first one being certain Jack Calder of Canadian origin. The feminine counterpart started in 1946. Among the most famous champions of the era ''pre-Repentigny'', the Australians Rod Laver ( 1956 ) and Pat Cash ( 1981 ), as well as the naturalized French Yannick Noah ( 1977 ) Cameroonian. The closure of the Four Seasons interior Club from Laval, where were held the Internationals since 1983, allowed Repentigny to be confirmed as city host.
Fifty six athletes, 28 girls and as much boys from about twenty countries, will answer our call during this initial presentation to Larochelle park. 3000 spectators attended the event during this week of August, among others, and they had the immense luck to admire illustrious Jim Courier and Michael Chang, the first players (to become stars) to play on our ground. They will be afterward imitated by tens, even hundreds of others (more than two hundreds juniors who played at Repentigny graduated to the pros - some to the highest WTA ranking level).
The second edition confirmed the status of the event as a "competition icon" at the world level. The tournament received a category A ranking. That decision of the International Federation of tennis, so admitted the Internationals to the select group of the ten biggest junior tennis events on the planet. The naming "After London and Paris, before New York, Repentigny presents...", will stick to the event and it's still today.
Becoming officially a corporation in 1988 under the name of "Les Internationnaux de tennis junior du Canada Inc.", the event will become, after only two years, solidly installed in our summer's biggest events and will have known how to join the supports of the population. The third edition will also mark the debuts of a long process of reorganization and improvement of the installations of the park Larochelle where all the courts were rebuild to meet the international requirements and specs.
In 1989, Tennis Canada will recognize the dynamism and the organizational quality of the Repentigny team by confirming the holding of the Internationals for five subsequent editions. This attribution will see itself confirmed repeatedly, leading the tournament towards its 20th anniversary underlined in 2005.
The visit of the Stanley cup in 1993, 128 participants on the main boards from 1997 till 2001, a record of 52 countries represented in 2001, 25 000 spectators in 2002, all proofs that it is a tournament liked by the players, the trainers, the tennis fans and an organization very well tuned, still evolving and renewing itself. The multiple tributes and the awards added to the brilliance and to the reputation of the Internationals: Honored and recognized by Tennis Canada, Named tournament of the year by Tennis Quebec to five occasions, decorated with the prize of the tourist event of Grand Prix du Tourisme Quebecois, regularly recipient of "The regional touristic event" of Lanaudière, with many prizes of recognitions awarded to our volunteers, etc.
The tournament never stopped, during all these year, stimulating the Quebec and Canadian tennis scene in an exemplary way. Rare are the competition at the Canadian level which can claim to have had an impact so significant on their sport and it is all to the honour of the hundreds of volunteers, host families, ball boys and girls, members of the organizing committees and thousands of spectators who, due to their love of tennis, gave shape to this impressive sporting event.
Long live the Internationals!
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Created by Rejean Boudreau 
