National Bank Open draw: Sinner, Zverev top two seeds

The Olympics are still going on (Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz are squaring off in the men’s singles gold-medal match on Sunday), but the tennis tour is wasting no time progressing to the next event. Immediately on the heels of the Olympics and the Citi Open in Washington, D.C. is the National Bank Open. It’s a 1000-point tournament–for the men in Montreal and for the women in Toronto.

Needless to say, there will be plenty of weary bodies in Montreal. That won’t be the case for world No. 1 Jannik Sinner, because he was forced out of the Olympics by tonsillitis. Instead of making all kinds of surface transitions (clay to grass to clay and now to hard courts), Sinner has been resting up for the hard-court summer. In fact, the Italian–who has not played since Wimbledon–has already been in Montreal for a whole week.

Sinner is the No. 1 seed this coming week and is an especially clear title favorite since both Djokovic and Alcaraz have predictably withdrawn from the tournament. Of course, it’s not like Sinner will be without competition. Other top seeds include Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev, Casper Ruud, and Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Following a bye, Sinner could meet Frances Tiafoe in the third round, Rublev or Tommy Paul in the quarters, and Medvedev or Tsitsipas in the SFs. Tsitsipas will likely run into Alex Michelsen in the last 32 and Arthur Fils in the last 16, while Medvedev potentially opens with Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Tiafoe vs. Alejandro Tabilo is a first-round match.

The bottom half of the bracket is home to a handful of intriguing first-round showdowns: Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Flavio Cobolli, Ben Shelton vs. Alexander Bublik, Jack Draper vs. Jordan Thompson, and Holger Rune vs. Milos Raonic.

If the seeds hold to form, quarterfinal matchups would be Hubert Hurkacz vs. Grigor Dimitrov, Sinner vs. Rublev, Medvedev vs. Tsitsipas, and Zverev vs. Ruud.

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on Twitter at @Dimonator.