Tennis: In Canada and then in Cincinnati, longer Masters 1000s and opportunities to be seized

Daniil Medvedev , Taylor Fritz, Jessica Pegula... some of the tour's top players returned to competition on July 21 at the Washington tournament. But Wimbledon champion Iga Swiatek (world number 3) and Roland-Garros champion Coco Gauff (number 2) preferred to wait until the WTA 1000 in Montreal, which starts Sunday and ends August 7, to launch their hard court seasons.

In the absence of world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, who withdrew to regain her strength after a first half of the season in which she often played a leading role, her American runner-up and her Polish rival are the favorites. They will try to dethrone Pegula (4th), the two-time defending champion in Canada but eliminated from the start at Wimbledon and Washington.

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The men's tournament, meanwhile, will be held on Sunday at the Toronto Masters 1000. With the withdrawals of world No. 1 Jannik Sinner, five-time Grand Slam champion Carlos Alcaraz (2nd), and 24-time major champion Novak Djokovic (6th), the Canadian event has lost its three main headliners and could see an outsider crowned, such as Australian Alexei Popyrin in 2024 or Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta in 2022.

Sinner, Alcaraz, and Djokovic all cited their need for rest as their reason for not attending Canada. The tournament's format was expanded from seven to 12 days in 2025, following in the footsteps of the Masters 1000 in Madrid, Rome, and Shanghai, which made the switch in 2023.

The extension of the tournament, like that of the Cincinnati Masters 1000 (August 7-18) which will immediately follow it, continues a trend that has been at work for several years on the ATP and WTA circuits, and sometimes denounced by the players. At Roland-Garros at the end of May, the Australian Alex De Minaur (13th) considered himself "burned out" after his elimination in the second round, pleading to "shorten the calendar" .

In 2023, it was the finalist of the last edition of Wimbledon Amanda Anisimova (7th) who had moved away from the circuit for several months, mentally exhausted by a sport that had gradually become "unbearable" for her. Sabalenka, Sinner, Djokovic and Alcaraz should, however, be back in Cincinnati, the last major tournament before the start of the US Open (August 24-September 7) where the two world No. 1s will attempt to defend their titles. Having just returned to the circuit in Washington, at the age of 45, Venus Williams will also be there thanks to an invitation from the organizers. She will try to confirm the good impression left by her first-round singles victory against her compatriot Peyton Stearns (35th) in the federal capital.

"I know I can play better and I will play better," the seven-time Grand Slam champion said on Thursday after her defeat in the round of 16. "I've been able to play a lot of matches here (...) I couldn't be happier with my first week," said the American more than 30 years after her debut on the WTA tour in 1994. "The good news is that I'm still in control of the points!" Reigning champions in New York, Aryna Sabalenka and Jannik Sinner are also in Cincinnati. The former has already triumphed in the WTA 1000 this season, on the hard courts of Miami in March and on the clay courts of Madrid in early May.

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Sinner missed four of the first five Masters 1000 events in 2025 due to a three-month suspension negotiated with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) after testing positive for an anabolic steroid in March 2024, the cause of which was ruled accidental by anti-doping authorities. Having just returned to the circuit in early May, the 23-year-old Italian reached the final of the Masters 1000 in Rome, where he was defeated by his great rival Carlos Alcaraz.