Zverev and Auger-Aliassime Lead the Way in Montreal for NBO 2026<\/a><\/p>\nThe Federation also announced that three Canadian pairs have been awarded wild cards into the doubles draw: Auger-Aliassime and Diallo, Shapovalov and Galarneau, as well as Draxl and Cleeve Harper (Calgary, AB) who is currently the best ranked Canadian in doubles (No. 110).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Note: the wild cards awarded to Jack Draper and Kei Nishikori are the result of reciprocal agreements with other organizations that will allow Canadian players to compete in other ATP tournaments around the world in 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n
QUOTES\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re thrilled to announce the final wild card recipients for this year\u2019s National Bank Open,\u201d said Val\u00e9rie T\u00e9treault, Tournament Director of the National Bank Open in Montr\u00e9al. \u201cWith these latest additions, our main draw now features five Canadians and two standout players in Ga\u00ebl Monfils and Jack Draper, both of whom have the potential to make a deep run. With former finalist Kei Nishikori and three more Canadians in the qualifying draw, fans can look forward to memorable moments from day one.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Seeing eight Canadians compete at the National Bank Open, including five in the main draw, is always positive for our high-performance program,” said Guillaume Marx, Vice President, High Performance, Tennis Canada. \u201cCompeting at home in an ATP\u202fMasters\u202f1000 event gives our athletes a unique opportunity to gain experience at the highest level while measuring themselves against the world\u2019s best players in front of Canadian fans. That\u2019s especially true for Keegan [Rice] and Duncan [Chan], who will be making their tournament debuts, and even for Justin [Boulais] who is coming back for a third time. We\u2019re excited to see them in action at IGA Stadium.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I’m really excited to be playing in Montreal,” said Jack Draper. “It’s a tournament I’ve enjoyed, and I have great memories of reaching the quarterfinals here a few years ago. I’m looking forward to getting back on court and competing in front of the Canadian fans again.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
MEDIA NOTES\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jack Draper (24 years old, No.147)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Draper, who rose as high as World No.4 in 2025, has won three ATP titles including the 2025\u202fMasters\u202f1000\u202ftitle in Indian Wells.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Draper will be making his third National Bank Open appearance and second at IGA\u202fStadium. He reached the quarterfinals in Montr\u00e9al in 2022, where he lost to eventual champion Pablo Carre\u00f1o Busta.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alexis Galarneau (27\u202fyears old, No.162)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Last year in Toronto, he reached the second round of the Canadian event for the first time in his career with a win over Arthur Rinderknech (7-6(2), 6-3).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In recent weeks, he reached the semifinals of the ATP Challenger event in Newport and the quarterfinals of the Granby National Bank Championships, a tournament he won in 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Liam Draxl (24 years old, No.244)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wild cards into the qualifying draw\u00a0
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kei Nishikori (36) will make one last appearance in Canada before retiring at the end of the season. A former World No.4 and 12-time ATP champion, he reached the quarterfinals in his most recent appearance in 2024. His best result at the National Bank Open came in 2016, when he was the runner-up to Novak Djokovic (6-3, 7-5).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Duncan Chan (20), who finished second in the Road to the NBO standings, will be making his tournament debut. Currently ranked No.663, he has won two WTT (formerly ITF) junior titles.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Keegan Rice (20), a graduate of the National Tennis Centre presented by Rogers in Montr\u00e9al, will also be making his tournament debut. Currently ranked No.900, he reached the singles and doubles finals of the M25 tournament in Laval this season.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Justin Boulais (24) is currently ranked No. 285 in the world. A member of the transition group of the National Tennis Centre presented by Rogers, he will be competing at the National Bank Open for the third time. In 2026, he captured the WTT M25 title in Faro.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Feature photo by: Tennis Canada<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japan\u2019s Kei Nishikori and Canadians Duncan Chan, Keegan Rice and Justin Boulais receive wild cards into the qualifying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":836492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-836491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836491","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=836491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}