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The Canadian Open returns tomorrow after its absence from the tennis calendar in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The boys’s singles occasion has been held since 1881 and is happening in Toronto, with the ultimate set to be held on the Aviva Centre, whereas the ladies’s singles occasion began in 1892 and is being hosted in Montreal, with the ultimate as a consequence of be hosted on the IGA Stadium.
The Affiliation of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour Masters 1000 and the Girls’s Tennis Affiliation (WTA) 1000 tournaments alternate venues annually on the annual occasion.
With the occasion final being held in 2019, the defending males’s singles champion is Spaniard Rafael Nadal, who defeated Russia’s Daniil Medvedev in straight units within the remaining having additionally received the event in 2018.
Bianca Andreescu grew to become the primary Canadian to win on dwelling soil since 1969 when the ladies’s singles occasion was held in 2019 following the retirement of American Serena Williams within the remaining.
Forty-eight gamers are concerned within the males’s singles event, with the highest 16 seeds receiving a bye to the spherical of 32.
World quantity two Medvedev is the best seed, and will face a repeat of the 2019 remaining with quantity two seed Nadal within the reverse half of the draw.
He was crushed by Pablo Carreño Busta of Spain within the quarter-finals on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, however has three profession ATP Masters 1000 wins to his title.
Medvedev’s compatriot Andrey Rublev, ranked seventh on this planet, is a possible semi-final opponent.
The world quantity seven misplaced to Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas in his maiden ATP Masters 1000 remaining in Monte Carlo earlier this 12 months, and travels to Canada having received a combined doubles gold with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova at Tokyo 2020, however been eradicated from the boys’s singles event within the opening spherical by Japan’s Kei Nishikori.
Tsitsipas might present a robust problem to Nadal’s bid for three-in-a-row in Toronto, and would leapfrog him on this planet rankings have been he to triumph.
Canada’s hopes for a primary victory on this occasion through the open period relaxation on fifth seed Denis Shapovalov within the prime half of the draw, and ninth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime and wildcard entry Vasek Pospisil within the backside half.
Wimbledon semi-finalist Shapovalov is ranked 10th on this planet, whereas Auger-Aliassime – who turned 21 as we speak – is the youngest participant within the ATP world prime 20.
Twenty-two year-old Casper Ruud of Norway has already received 4 titles this 12 months with the sixth seed in the identical half of the draw as Nadal, Tsitsipas and others.
Seventh seed Hubert Hurkacz of Poland received the primary ATP Masters 1000 occasion of the 12 months on the Miami Open in April, which was additionally his first such title – a possible quarter-final towards Medvedev, who he knocked out of Wimbledon in July, awaits.
The opposite seeds are Australia’s Alex de Minaur, France’s Gael Monfils, Chile’s Cristian Garin and Italy’s Jannik Sinner within the prime half, and within the backside half Diego Schwartzman of Argentina, Roberto Bautista-Agut of Spain, Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria and Aslan Karatsev of Russia.
Australian Nick Kyrgios is one in all three wildcard entries, whereas six gamers will progress by qualifying as we speak.
World primary Novak Djokovic of Serbia has withdrawn to assist his preparations for the US Open as he seeks to turn into the primary man since Rod Laver in 1969 to win all 4 majors in a calendar 12 months.
Newly topped Olympic champion and 2017 Canadian Open winner Alexander Zverev of Germany, Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini of Italy, Switzerland’s Roger Federer and Canada’s 2013 finalist Milos Raonic are additionally among the many absentees.
Within the WTA 1000 girls’s singles event, 56 gamers will participate, with the highest eight seeds receiving a bye to the spherical of 32.
Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka is the highest seed.
The world quantity three suffered a second-round exit at Tokyo 2020 to Croatia’s world quantity 53 Donna Vekić, who can be within the prime half of the draw.
Nonetheless she reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon in July within the 23-year-old’s greatest Grand Slam efficiency up to now, and has received 4 WTA 1000 titles, most just lately the Madrid Open in Could.
World quantity 5 Andreescu was 19 when she triumphed in Toronto and received the US Open later that 12 months, however a knee harm and the COVID-19 pandemic meant she was out of motion for 15 months, and she or he has suffered early exits from every of this 12 months’s Grand Slams.
She retired from the Miami Open remaining towards Australia’s Ash Barty earlier this 12 months.
Andreescu begins her defence of her title because the second seed.
Olympic girls’s singles bronze medallist Elina Svitolina enters the Canadian Open because the third seed, and received the occasion in 2017.
The world quantity six is within the backside half of the draw.
Karolína Plíšková of the Czech Republic was runner-up at Wimbledon in her first Grand Slam remaining in 5 years.
The fourth seed is within the prime half of the draw, and looking for a 3rd title of the present WTA 1000 occasions and her first because the Italian Open in 2019.
The fifth and eighth seeds within the prime half of the draw are Spain’s Garbiñe Muguruza, who received her second WTA 1000 occasion on the Dubai Tennis Championships earlier this 12 months, and Belarus’ Victoria Azarenka.
Azarenka received 10 WTA Premier Obligatory or Premier 5 occasions earlier than they merged into the WTA 1000 this 12 months, her first success on the Miami Open in 2009 and most just lately on the Cincinnati Masters in 2020.
The sixth and seventh seeds within the backside half of the draw are Romania’s Simona Halep and the Czech Republic’s Petra Kvitová.
Halep received the Canadian Open in 2016 and 2018 amongst eight WTA Premier Obligatory or Premier 5 titles.
She is returning to aggressive motion for the primary time since Could’s Italian Open, having missed the French Open and Wimbledon with a calf harm, and is one in all 5 wildcard entries to the ladies’s singles event.
Kvitová suffered early eliminations from every of this 12 months’s Grand Slams, however received this event in 2012 amongst 28 WTA titles – probably the most of any participant at this 12 months’s Canadian Open.
Among the many different seeds are Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina, who misplaced the bronze medal match at Tokyo 2020, and Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who received gold with Rublev within the combined doubles within the Japanese capital.
The highest two on this planet in Barty and Japan’s Naomi Osaka have withdrawn, in addition to fellow prime 10 gamers Sofia Kenin of america and Iga Świątek of Poland and Olympic champion Belinda Bencic of Switzerland.
Males’s and ladies’s doubles tournaments are additionally being held.
Croatian duo Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic are the highest seeds within the 28-pair males’s event which additionally consists of Rublev with Olympics males’s singles runner-up Karen Khachanov.
Thirty-two pairs will participate within the girls’s doubles competitors.
The Canadian Open begins the hard-court season in North America, with the US Open – the ultimate Grand Slam of the 12 months – set to start out on August 30.
The boys’s event has 1000 ATP rating factors on provide for the winner, with 900 WTA rating factors obtainable for the winner of the ladies’s competitors.
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