It\u2019s the most wonderful time of the year. For Canadian tennis fans, that is.<\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s two largest cities are set to host (most of) the world\u2019s best tennis players. And this year\u2019s National Bank Open presented by Rogers has big shoes to fill.<\/p>\n
Victoria Mboko glued the nation\u2019s eyes to its TV sets last summer when she defeated Naomi Osaka in Montreal to win the tournament, becoming the first Canadian singles champion since Bianca Andreescu in 2019. It was a monumental moment for the country and for the sport.<\/p>\n
Mboko\u2019s absence looms large over this year\u2019s edition. The 19-year-old injured her MCL at last month\u2019s HSBC Championships in England, knocking her out of the NBO and likely next month\u2019s US Open.<\/p>\n
But not all is lost. Canada has other hopefuls to lift a singles trophy this year, including the No. 2 seed on the men\u2019s side, Felix Auger-Aliassime.<\/p>\n
Can Felix overcome NBO demons?<\/p>\n
Auger-Aliassime is undoubtedly Canada\u2019s best hope for a homegrown champion at this tournament. The world No. 4 is the two-seed on the men\u2019s side, and is playing in his home province in front of adoring fans. The pride of Quebec has a relatively favourable path to the final.<\/p>\n
Yet home soil does not necessarily mean stable ground for Auger-Aliassime. The 25-year-old has not advanced past the second round at the National Bank Open since 2022, when he reached the quarterfinals. Auger-Aliassime\u2019s 42 per cent career win\/loss record at the NBO is tied for his lowest win percentage among all Masters 1000 tournaments.<\/p>\n
At Auger-Aliassime\u2019s most recent Montreal appearance two years ago, he was dispatched in the first round in straight sets by Flavio Cobboli. He and Cobboli are projected to meet in this tournament\u2019s quarterfinals, and Auger-Aliassime is winless in their three head-to-head matches.<\/p>\n
This is a critical junction of Auger-Aliassime\u2019s career. He fired longtime coach Frederic Fontang after his quarterfinal loss at Wimbledon earlier this month, Auger-Aliassime\u2019s second straight Grand Slam quarterfinal defeat.<\/p>\n
Auger-Aliassime has shown flashes of excellence, and the ability to make runs at major tournaments, appearing in the Paris Masters final in November. If his coaching staff was holding him back from being a perennial championship threat, this hometown tournament is the place to prove he is a truly elite player.<\/p>\n
Other Canadian hopeful Denis Shapovalov, who has similarly struggled in Canada, is set to take on American Zachary Svajda in the first round. Shapovalov is coming off a finals run at the ATP 250 Los Cabos Open.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka looks to find form<\/p>\n
Aryna Sabalenka has been the most dominant player in the WTA over the last few years, but she\u2019s in the midst of a rough stretch. The world No. 1 unexpectedly fell in the Round of 16 at Wimbledon to Osaka, just a month after her quarterfinal loss at the French Open.<\/p>\n
For Sabalenka, the blue and green court at Sobey\u2019s Stadium should be a beacon of comfort.<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old from Belarus is a hardcourt wizard, and her success on the surface compared to grass and clay is staggering.<\/p>\n
Since withdrawing from last year\u2019s National Bank Open, she has only lost to two players on hard courts (Jessica Pegula, and Elena Rybakina thrice). In that time, she has won four championships, including last year\u2019s US Open, and was a finalist in Australia.<\/p>\n
Some players are simply suited for certain surfaces, and the four-time Grand Slam champion Sabalenka is no exception. Naturally all of her Slam titles came on hard courts \u2014 two in Melbourne and two in New York.<\/p>\n
If Sabalenka flames out early in Toronto, it would indicate a decline in her play. What\u2019s more likely is that she is on a collision course to play her nemesis and No. 2 seed Rybakina in the final.<\/p>\n
The new 12-day format for the National Bank Open has been fodder for debate since its inception last Summer. It had been a weeklong tournament for years, and suddenly player attendance is changing.<\/p>\n
World No. 1 and 2023 tournament champion Jannik Sinner withdrew from the tournament last week, as did tennis icon Novak Djokovic.<\/p>\n
Djokovic\u2019s withdrawal is unsurprising. The four-time tournament champion has not made an appearance in Canada since 2018. At 39, Djokovic is the sport\u2019s all-time career earnings leader, and he has become increasingly selective about which tournaments he attends.<\/p>\n
Sinner on the other hand is 24, and is coming off a second straight championship at Wimbledon. It is also his second straight year skipping Canada.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, world No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz\u2019s lingering injury is keeping him out of Canada, where he hasn\u2019t played since 2023.<\/p>\n
These absences bode well for Auger-Aliassime\u2019s chances, but Quebec tennis fans are missing out on some of the most popular athletes in the sport.<\/p>\n
The NBO has always found itself in an awkward portion of the tennis calendar, squished between the Wimbledon and US Open championships, and directly preceding the Cincinnati Masters, which has the exact same total prize purse.<\/p>\n
Struggling Fernandez leading pack<\/p>\n
Montreal\u2019s Leylah Fernandez is the highest ranked Canadian in the Toronto cohort, coming in as the 30-seed. She is also one of the biggest fallers in the most recent WTA rankings, dropping nine spots to No. 34 in the world.<\/p>\n
It has been tough sledding for Fernandez this season. At the DC Open earlier this week \u2014 where she was the defending champion \u2014 Ferandez collapsed in the second round, conceding five consecutive games then the tiebreak to end the match, losing in straight sets.<\/p>\n
Fernandez has particularly struggled at the Grand Slams this year, falling in the first round at each of the Australian Open, Roland Garros, and Wimbledon championships.<\/p>\n
For the 23-year-old who was a US Open finalist in 2021, and won two singles titles last year, the only way to describe Fernandez\u2019s 2026 season is disappointing.<\/p>\n
As if the outlook was not bleak enough, Fernadez has struggled in Canada, much like Auger-Aliassime, never making it past the third round in six National Bank Open appearances.<\/p>\n
Several Canadian women will take to the court as wildcards \u2014 including Andreescu, who will play Czechia\u2019s Nikola Bartunkova on Sunday \u2014 but Fernandez is the highest billed on the set list. In a stacked women\u2019s field with only one top-10 player absent, it will not be easy for Fernandez to turn her frustrating season around.<\/p>\n
Mboko won\u2019t be present to defend her title, but American flamethrower Ben Shelton is set to defend his.<\/p>\n
Shelton\u2019s win in Toronto over Karen Khachanov was his first Masters 1000 title, and had the feeling of a coming-out party. At just 23-years-old, with one of the best serves on tour, Shelton seems like a candidate to end the Grand Slam-less streak among American men, which dates back to Andy Roddick in 2003.<\/p>\n
Since last year\u2019s final, Shelton has made inroads at big tournaments, including quarterfinal appearances in Cincinnati, at the Paris Masters, and the Australian Open.<\/p>\n
Shelton is another player who thrives on hard courts and is also especially vocal, always looking to get the crowd on his side. As the defending champion, the southpaw will try to use the Canadian crowd to his advantage, who should be favourable to him so long as he does not match up with a Canadian.<\/p>\n
Lingering World Cup fever<\/p>\n
FIFA World Cup festivities wrapped up in Toronto just a couple of weeks ago, but national pride is still in the air.<\/p>\n
Budding star Alex Eala has been well supported throughout the season by Filipino fans all over the world. The 21-year-old’s ascent to the WTA\u2019s top-30 players has been swift, and her fan base has been growing. The Greater Toronto Area is home to the largest Filipino population in Canada, so Eala should have substantial support throughout her tournament.<\/p>\n
Polish star Iga Swiatek is also always a fan favourite in Toronto, which is home to a large number of Polish-Canadians. The six-time Grand Slam champion is on the hunt for her first NBO title.<\/p>\n
More, Ukraine\u2019s Elina Svitolina and Marta Kostyuk are the ninth- and 10th-seeds, respectively, and should have loud and proud support in Toronto.<\/p>\n
And in Montreal, expect Brazilian phenom Joao Fonseca to have a dedicated fan section. While the Brazilian population in the city is relatively small, Fonseca\u2019s third-round win over Djokovic at Roland Garros increased his profile domestically. Brazilian fans travel far and wide to support the 19-year-old.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s the most wonderful time of the year. For Canadian tennis fans, that is. Canada\u2019s two largest cities…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":840754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-840753","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\/840753","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=840753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}