National Bank Open tournaments to begin with a new expanded format and same old superstar absences

Open this photo in gallery: Coco Gauff of the United States, pictured at the 2023 National Bank Open, is this year's tournament top seed. Other superstar players, specifically from the men's side, will be absent from the Open this year.Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images

Flashy, oversized banners are affixed to the tennis stadiums as Toronto and Montreal prepare to host the first ATP and WTA 1000 events of the North American hard-court season, starting this weekend.

Canada’s marquee tennis events, collectively called the National Bank Open, each have a new expanded format this year – billed as “more world-class tennis over more days.” Yet one of the old trends continues. Several of the sport’s biggest superstars aren’t coming.

What’s different in 2025?

For the first time, the Montreal and Toronto events are growing to 12 days with 96-player main singles draws, increasing from their previous week-long duration with 56 players. There are 32 doubles teams, up from 28.

Players get more rest this time – a day off between their early-round matches. It now operates similarly to other marquee combined 1000 events, such as Indian Wells or Madrid.

During the last four days, the quarter-finals, semis and the final will all be played during night sessions. The final will take place on a Thursday, rather than a Sunday afternoon like before.

But several of the best are missing

Four of the top six men on the ATP Tour aren’t coming to Canada.

You won’t see the next great clash between No. 1 Jannik Sinner and No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz in Toronto, because neither is making the trip after their long runs at Wimbledon just two weeks ago. World No. 4 Jack Draper won’t be there either, nor four-time Canadian Open winner and World No. 6 Novak Djokovic, or other top 20 players Grigor Dimitrov and Tommy Paul.

Alcaraz joins Sinner, Djokovic in high-profile list of National Bank Open dropouts

On the women’s side, World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka withdrew from Montreal, but otherwise the WTA’s top-ranked athletes will be there.

The tournament in Canada’s summer is scheduled into a tough spot – wedged between Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. It also must share that time period with the Cincinnati Open, which takes place right after the Canadian Open and is also growing to a larger, longer event this year, theirs over 14 days. That doesn’t give players much time to rest and recover before New York.

But this should have been one of the better years for player fields in Canada, especially compared with the summers when players pass after competing in an Olympics. Toronto’s tournament director Karl Hale acknowledged the slew of withdrawals is disappointing, but the show goes on.

“Injuries happen from time to time, there’s issues from time to time,” Hale said. “But we’re going to speak to the tours, about if there is anything we can do to make things a little bit better for the players, and we’ve already started talking to some of the players and getting feedback.”

Hale called 2019 the best Canadian Open yet – the WTA tournament won by Canada’s Bianca Andreescu – and insisted there’s room for a Canadian to win again this year.

So who are the biggest global stars playing?

Coco Gauff, recent Roland-Garros champ, is the top seed in Canada for the second year running. The American standout has played the event four times, and her best result has been the quarter-finals. Six-time Grand Slam winner Iga Swiatek of Poland is the No. 2 seed, fresh off hoisting the Venus Rosewater Dish at Wimbledon. American Jessica Pegula (No. 3), NBO champion in 2023 and 2024, looks for the three-peat. The 18-year-old phenom Mirra Andreeva is seeded fourth.

In Toronto, Germany’s Alexander Zverev, the world No. 3 and a 2017 winner of this tournament, will be the top seed. He’s joined by Americans Taylor Fritz (No. 2 seed) and Ben Shelton (No. 4), and Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti (No. 3).

Key Canadians in action

Three Canadian men are seeded for the first time in tournament history, so they earn first-round byes. Felix Auger-Aliassime, the No. 21 seed, is the highest among them. He said outside of the Slams, this is the tournament he most wants to win, no matter which stars are here.

“You have to consider that the year is long and obviously players will have to make decisions about their schedule, but that doesn’t change my goal here,” Auger-Aliassime said, after cracking a little joke about not having to face Alcaraz. “Regardless if they were here or not, I’m here to compete, to play and to try to win.”

Denis Shapovalov will be the No. 22 seed, fresh off his second ATP title of 2025 in Los Cabos, Mexico. Gabriel Diallo is seeded for the first time (No. 27 seed), and the hard-serving 6-foot-8 player has soared some 50 spots in the world rankings this year.

There’s a pressure to perform for Auger-Aliassime and Shapovalov, who are now veterans of their home open. Yet there are also plenty of demands on their time in Toronto. Auger-Aliassime has run the media gamut this week, including the draw ceremony and throwing out the first pitch at a Blue Jays game.

Former World No. 25 Vasek Pospisil gets a main-draw wild card and is making Toronto his last-ever tournament. He’ll face a qualifier. Another Canadian trailblazer will retire as a main-draw wild card in Montreal, former World No. 5 Genie Bouchard, once a Wimbledon finalist.

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No Canadian women are seeded in Montreal. Leylah Fernandez is the only one to make the main draw based on her ranking – World No. 36. Canada’s long list of other wild cards includes newcomer and No. 88 Victoria Mboko, just 18; Bianca Andreescu (No. 188); and Carson Branstine (No. 191).

What about the prize money?

The women have long earned less than the men at their corresponding Canadian Open tennis tournaments, but the first step to narrowing that gap starts this year.

The ATP tournament will award just over US$9-million in Toronto, with the champion making US$1,124,380.

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The women’s total purse in Montreal is more than US$5-million this year, with the champ claiming US$752,275. At the 2026 event, that amount climbs again to about 79 per cent of what the men make, and in 2027 the men and women will earn the same.

“I’m quite excited to think that the next time that the women are going to come back to Montreal two years from now,” said Valérie Tétreault, Montreal’s tournament director, “we’re going to be celebrating, finally, the first event with equal prize money.”

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