Over in Montreal, 18-year-old Victoria Mboko<\/a> also came from behind to seal a memorable first WTA title win.<\/p>\n Some great moments were created during the Canadian Open<\/a>, despite the absence of the ATP\u2019s highest-ranked players, Jannik Sinner<\/a> and Carlos Alcaraz<\/a>.<\/p>\n Both Sinner and Alcaraz withdrew from this season\u2019s Canadian Open, which is now 12 days long.<\/p>\n The pair chose to commence the summer North American hard court swing at the Cincinnati Open<\/a> instead.<\/p>\n In a bid to secure their services for the 2026 ATP Canadian Open in Montreal, tournament director Karl Hale disclosed a conversation he had with Sinner and Alcaraz and shared if he thinks they will return to Canada to compete.<\/p>\n \u201cI would have Sinner and Alcaraz come! I actually told them because we were in talks when they withdrew and we talked to them for several days,\u201d Hale told the Nothing Major podcast.<\/p>\n \u201cI said \u2018okay, we are here in 2026. You\u2019re going to be in Montreal. And just make sure that happens!\u2019 I am very, very confident that they will be in Montreal next year.<\/p>\n \u201cI do not think it\u2019s an issue because of what we are doing with the Tours and bonus pools and all of those things and also the three weeks between our tournaments next year.\u201d<\/p>\n Throughout most of the 2000s and the 2010s Rafael Nadal<\/a> and Roger Federer<\/a> were the biggest stars in men\u2019s tennis.<\/p>\n Their epic rivalry and contrast in styles enthralled fans around the world and once they entered a tournament, arenas would be packed out to watch them play.<\/p>\n They became bona fide tennis superstars and as Sinner and Alcaraz continue to dominate the current era, Canadian Open tournament director Hale thinks the pair are on their way to creating a similar profile for themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think they are 40% of the way there,\u201d Hale. \u201cI think Federer, Novak and throw Andy in there. When they were at the height of their mania, especially Roger, it penetrated the fabric of society globally.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was not just a tennis icon, he was a sporting and news icon. They are just getting there because they are so new.<\/p>\n \u201cSinner\u2019s first Masters series was in Toronto and it was only two years ago, whereas those other players like Federer, Novak and Nadal were 20 year brands like Serena.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Canadian proved a tournament that shone a light on some of the game\u2019s brightest young stars. Ben…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[6733,49,48,17581,619,615,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-58731","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-atp","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-canadian-open","12":"tag-carlos-alcaraz","13":"tag-jannik-sinner","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Jannik](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1753576628_162_GettyImages-2224933756-1024x683.jpg\")
Photo by Daniel Kopatsch\/Getty ImagesCanadian Open tournament director Karl Hale wants Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner at the 2026 event in Montreal<\/p>\n![\"Roger](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-1161602477-1024x685.jpg\")
Photo by Clive Brunskill\/Getty ImagesKarl Hale describes how Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner compare to Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal\u2019s popularity<\/p>\n