The Montreal Masters began missing three of the four best players in the world. Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, and Novak Djokovic all withdrew before a ball was struck, Sinner and Djokovic managing their schedules for Cincinnati and the US Open, Alcaraz still building back from the wrist. That left Alexander Zverev as the No. 1 seed and the tournament's headline act. He lasted one match. Tallon Griekspoor beat him 6-7(3), 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday, and afterward said the quiet part out loud: "Without Sinner and Alcaraz, the tournament is open to all."
He was right, and the draw has spent the rest of the week proving it. Botic van de Zandschulp took out fourth seed Daniil Medvedev. Thiago Tirante, a qualifier, beat seventh seed Taylor Fritz. Felix Auger-Aliassime withdrew injured before his opener. And on Thursday night, defending champion Ben Shelton lost to Zizou Bergs, the Belgian who won Eastbourne six weeks ago. By Friday morning, the Montreal draw has lost its top three names to withdrawal and most of the rest to the bracket. What is left is a genuinely open Masters, and a question about how a 1000-point event ends up looking like this.
National Bank Open (Montreal) — ATP Masters 1000
Round | Match | Score |
|---|---|---|
R2 | Griekspoor d. Zverev [1] | 6-7(3), 6-2, 6-4 |
R2 | van de Zandschulp d. Medvedev [4] | 6-3, 7-6(5) |
R2 | Tirante (Q) d. Fritz [7] | 7-5, 6-3 |
R2 | Fonseca d. Tsitsipas | 7-6(3), 7-5 |
Zverev's R2 loss to Griekspoor is his earliest Masters exit of 2026 as the top seed.
Fonseca beat Tsitsipas from a break down in both sets; the 19-year-old is into the second week of a Masters for the first time.
Bergs backs up the Eastbourne grass title with a hardcourt upset of the defending champion.
van de Zandschulp is 1-4 lifetime against Medvedev but won the two most important sets Wednesday night.
The Montreal QF field will contain no top-eight seed for the first time at a Masters since Shanghai 2023.
Auger-Aliassime's withdrawal (back, in training) is his second injury scratch of the summer.
Ruud vs Fonseca, is a rematch of the Roland Garros R4 the Brazilian won.
Over in Toronto, the WTA 1000 lost defending champion Victoria Mboko before the draw (knee); Sabalenka, Gauff, and Rybakina all alive.
🎯 PICK 1 · CASPER RUUD · To reach the Montreal final
The highest-ranked man left in the draw and the most experienced closer. The Fonseca R3 is the toughest test, but the half beyond it has no seed above 15.
🎯 PICK 2 · JOAO FONSECA · To reach the Montreal semifinal
The 19-year-old already owns a win over Ruud this year and is playing the cleanest hardcourt of his young career. The open draw is the gift, and he is taking it.
🎯 PICK 3 · TALLON GRIEKSPOOR · To reach the QF
Carrying the Zverev scalp forward into the softest section of the bracket. The Dutchman's flat ball travels on this surface.
🎯 PICK 4 · ELENA RYBAKINA · To win Toronto
The best hardcourt server left in the women's 1000, a favourable section, and a form curve that has quietly climbed since Wimbledon. The trophy is there.
The Tipster Corner is analytical commentary, not financial advice. Always bet responsibly.
The Montreal draw this week is missing the three best players in the world, and all three are missing legally. Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, and Novak Djokovic did not break any rule by withdrawing. Understanding why, and what it does to the tournament, is a window into one of the quiet structural tensions in modern tennis: the Masters 1000 events are, on paper, mandatory, and in practice, increasingly optional for exactly the players who matter most.
The rule is straightforward. Any player in the top 30 at the end of the previous season is a "commitment player," obligated to enter all eight mandatory Masters 1000 events plus a set number of 500s. Skipping a mandatory event without a valid medical exemption triggers a fine and a zero-pointed result on the ranking. The system exists to protect the product. A Masters 1000 sells its broadcast rights, its sponsorships, and its tickets on the promise that the best players will be there. The mandatory rule is the tournament's guarantee that the promise is kept.
The exemptions are where the guarantee softens. A player over 30, or with twelve full seasons played, or 600 tour matches, can skip mandatory events freely. That covers Djokovic entirely. For everyone else, the exemption is medical, and the definition of a valid medical withdrawal has quietly widened over the last decade. A player no longer needs to be injured to the point of being unable to play. A player managing a body across an eleven-month season, protecting a specific joint, or simply arriving at a Masters two weeks after a Slam and three weeks before another, can present a medical rationale that the tour accepts. Sinner's Montreal withdrawal, framed around managing his body for the Cincinnati title defence and the US Open, is the archetype. It is not a lie. It is also not an injury in the way the mandatory rule originally imagined.
The incentive structure drives all of it. The four Slams are worth 2,000 points and the overwhelming majority of a top player's prize money, prestige, and legacy. A Masters 1000 is worth 1,000 points and considerably less of everything else. When the calendar stacks a Masters between two more important events, the rational choice for a player chasing Slams and the year-end No. 1 is to protect the body for the bigger prizes. The mandatory rule was written for an era when the Masters events were closer in value to the Slams and the season was shorter. In 2026, with an eleven-month calendar, expanded twelve-day Masters draws, and a physical baseline game that punishes the body more than the serve-and-volley era did, the rational player treats the summer Masters as a place to rest.
What this does to the tournament is the part nobody at the ATP wants to discuss on the record. Montreal is awarding 1,000 ranking points and several million dollars in prize money this week to a field that started without three of the four best players and, by the quarterfinals, will contain none of the top eight seeds. The winner will be a deserving player who won seven matches. The winner will also hold a title that, measured by who he had to beat, is worth materially less than the same title in a year when the draw was full. The points are identical. The achievement is not. And the audience, watching a Masters final between two players ranked outside the top 15, is being sold a 1000-level event that has, through no one's rule-breaking, become something closer to a 500.
There is no villain here. Sinner is right to protect his body. The tournament is right to want him. The rule is trying to hold a line that the economics of the modern calendar have made unholdable. But the trend is real and it is accelerating. Five of the last eight Masters 1000 events have lost at least one top-three player to pre-tournament withdrawal. The mandatory rule is becoming a polite fiction, honoured in the fine print and ignored in the practice, and the value of a Masters title is quietly eroding as a result. Montreal this week is not an anomaly. It is a preview. The open draw that Griekspoor described is going to keep happening, because the system that was built to prevent it no longer can.
Extended Highlights: Fonseca downs Tsitsipas, Griekspoor stuns Zverev in Montreal 2026 R2
The night the top seed and a former Slam finalist both went out; the open draw begins.
Highlights: Van de Zandschulp stuns fourth seed Medvedev in Montreal 2026 R2
The Dutchman converts six of eight break points to take out Medvedev in 99 minutes.
Joao Fonseca credits 'mental strength' after late Stefanos Tsitsipas drama in Montreal
The 19-year-old Brazilian's comeback from a break down in both sets against Tsitsipas.
National Bank Open (Montreal) — ATP Masters 1000 · August 1 – 13 · Outdoor hard · Montreal, QC
R3 completes today and tomorrow; QFs this weekend; SFs Monday; final Wednesday. Ruud the highest seed left; Fonseca, Griekspoor, Bergs, van de Zandschulp the storylines. The most open Masters draw in years.
National Bank Open (Toronto) — WTA 1000 · August 1 – 13 · Outdoor hard · Toronto, ON
Sabalenka, Gauff, Rybakina, Pegula lead; defending champion Mboko out (knee).
On the horizon:
Cincinnati Open (M1000 + W1000) · August 10 – 17. Sinner defending; Alcaraz returns.
US Open · August 24 – September 6. Sinner defending the title and the year-end No. 1 race.