{"id":789792,"date":"2026-07-09T04:47:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T04:47:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/789792\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T04:47:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T04:47:21","slug":"sabalenka-headlines-nbo-toronto-player-list-with-2025-champion-mboko-sidelined","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/789792\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabalenka headlines NBO Toronto player list, with 2025 champion Mboko sidelined"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus hits a return to Amanda Anisimova of the United States at the 2024 National Bank Open in Toronto.Chris Young\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka headlined the 96-player list for the National Bank Open, a tournament that will have a new champion this year after the recent withdrawal of Canada\u2019s Victoria Mboko<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tennis Canada said 72 of the WTA Tour\u2019s top 75 players were entered in the Aug. 2-13 competition at Sobeys Stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the second year of our expanded 12-day format, fans will have more opportunities than ever to enjoy elite tennis and experience everything the tournament has to offer in Toronto this August,\u201d tournament director Karl Hale said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka, a four-time Grand Slam champion from Belarus, will be joined in the field by second-ranked Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan and third-ranked Iga Swiatek of Poland. The tournament is one of 10 WTA 1000 events on the tour calendar.<\/p>\n

Other notable entries included fourth-ranked Jessica Pegula, who won back-to-back NBO titles in 2023 and 2024, and fellow Americans Amanda Anisimova (No. 6) and Coco Gauff (No. 7).<\/p>\n

Serena Williams’s comeback announcement has Toronto tour director hopeful for an appearance<\/a><\/p>\n

World No. 24 Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., and 180th-ranked wild-card entry Bianca Andreescu of Mississauga, Ont., also have main-draw spots.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying in front of my home crowd is always so special,\u201d Andreescu said Wednesday on a conference call. \u201cThe crowd just gives you that extra motivation and just that extra support to keep pushing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mboko, from Burlington, Ont., confirmed Tuesday that she would not be able to defend her title. She suffered a left knee injury last month at the HSBC Championships.<\/p>\n

Mboko defeated Japanese star Naomi Osaka in last year\u2019s final at Montreal. She beat four former Grand Slam champions en route to her first WTA Tour crown. <\/p>\n

Before the injury, Tennis Canada had promoted Mboko\u2019s return by announcing her title defence would begin with a showcase evening match on Aug. 5. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Leylah Fernandez of Canada plays a backhand against Janice Tjen of Indonesia during their ladies’ singles first round match at Wimbledon last month.Jan Kruger\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t immediately clear who might replace her in that session. Scheduling meetings were set to be held after the draw for the US$7.43-million tournament on July 31. <\/p>\n

There are four former NBO champions in the field. <\/p>\n

In addition to Pegula, eighth-ranked Elina Svitolina (2017 champion) of Ukraine is back along with 11th-ranked Swiss Belinda Bencic, who won in 2015. Andreescu was victorious in 2019. <\/p>\n

American Venus Williams was previously confirmed as a wild-card entry. It wasn\u2019t immediately clear if her sister, 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams, would seek one of the six other wild-card spots. <\/p>\n

The 44-year-old, who\u2019s attempting a comeback this season, recently injured her knee in a first-round loss at Wimbledon in her first competitive singles match in four years. <\/p>\n

Tennis Canada said the other wild-card entries would be announced later this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this time we don\u2019t have full insight into Serena\u2019s plans or schedule,\u201d a Tennis Canada spokesperson said via e-mail. \u201cBut we would, of course, be prepared to welcome her back to Toronto with open arms. <\/p>\n

\u201cSerena is a legend of the sport, a three-time NBO singles champion and, in 2022, she announced her retirement during our tournament, ensuring she has a special connection with our event and fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

The top 32 seeds will receive first-round byes. A one-day qualifying round is set for Aug. 1. <\/p>\n

Andreescu, meanwhile, who has dealt with a variety of injuries in recent seasons, recently qualified for her first Grand Slam main draw in nearly two years at the All-England Club. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was definitely very emotional,\u201d said Andreescu. \u201cI felt like I really needed to experience what that moment really felt like in that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old Canadian lost to China\u2019s Zhang Shuai in the first round.<\/p>\n

The entry list for the ATP Tour\u2019s National Bank Open in Montreal will be released on Thursday. The men\u2019s and women\u2019s tournaments run concurrently and alternate between the two host cities each year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus hits a return to Amanda Anisimova of the United…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789793,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,3302,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-789792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-toronto","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789792","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=789792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}