While some of the Hologic WTA Tour\u2019s finest were grinding in the extreme heat of Washington, D.C., Iga Swiatek was basking under a gentler sun with friends. After blowing through a perfect Wimbledon final in which she didn\u2019t lose a single game, Swiatek posted pics of herself on a large boat and riding a jet-ski.<\/p>\n
\u201cRecharged, smiling, with some amazing memories,\u201d she posted. \u201cLet\u2019s kick off another chapter of this season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which is a nice segue to the Omnium Banque Nationale pr\u00e9sent\u00e9 par Rogers in Montreal, Canada, where main-draw play began Sunday. It\u2019s the first of back-to-back Hologic WTA Tour 1000 events leading up to the season\u2019s final major, the US Open in New York.<\/p>\n
Montreal: Draws<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Scores<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Order of play<\/a><\/p>\n It\u2019s a super-sized 12-day tournament, featuring a 96-player draw and more than $5 million in total prize money. Swiatek will be the No. 2 seed behind French Open champion Coco Gauff.<\/p>\n Swiatek, already the best clay-court player of her generation with four Roland Garros titles, displayed a new skill set at Wimbledon, mastering the grass. She\u2019s already an established hand on hard courts — in 2022, she won five hard-court titles alone, including the US Open.<\/p>\n Since the inception of WTA 1000s in 2009, only Serena Williams has a better winning percentage than Swiatek\u2019s 114-27 (.809). Since the start of the 2020 season, Swiatek has the most WTA 1000 wins (111); Aryna Sabalenka is next with 101.<\/p>\n The World No. 1 is sitting this one out, so here is a chance for Swiatek and others to close some ground in the PIF Race to the WTA Finals in Riyadh.<\/p>\n The standings: Sabalenka 7,395, Swiatek 5,983, Coco Gauff 4,609, Madison Keys 4,105. Swiatek, Gauff and Keys, winners of the season\u2019s first three Grand Slams, are all in play this week in Canada.<\/p>\n Some storylines to savor:<\/p>\n Pegula eyes three-peat<\/p>\n Only one woman — Monica Seles, has won three straight titles in Canada. Pegula is trying to match that. She defended her title last year in Toronto, pushing her overall record in Canada to a terrific 17-2.<\/p>\n \u201cDefinitely my favorite part of the year. I love being in North America,\u201d Pegula said in Washington, D.C. \u201cI love playing on the hard courts. Always just a fun swing for me.\u201d<\/p>\n Last year, Pegula followed up her title-run in Toronto by reaching the finals in Cincinnati and New York. This year, however, she\u2019ll be starting from scratch. After winning the title on grass in the Bad Homburg 500, she\u2019s lost her past two matches, including last week\u2019s straight-sets loss to Leylah Fernandez in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n Pegula is looking to join Serena Williams (Miami) and Sabalenka (Wuhan) as the only women since 2009 to win three straight editions of this WTA 1000.<\/p>\n Notable first-round matchups<\/p>\n