Wednesday at the National Bank Open presented by Rogers is the day the Montreal draw gets interesting. Alexander Zverev, Felix Auger-Aliassime, and defending champion Ben Shelton are all scheduled to play their opening matches at IGA Stadium. In Toronto at Sobeys Stadium, Alex Eala steps onto a WTA 1000 court for the first time, days after her DC Open title win.
This is the moment the tournament has been building toward.
Montreal: Zverev under the lights
Zverev is seeded first in Montreal and ranked World No. 2. He won Roland Garros in June and reached the Wimbledon final before the summer hard-court swing brought him to Canada. He has not played at the National Bank Open this season, which means Wednesday is his entry point into a tournament where the draw has opened up significantly.
Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, and Novak Djokovic are all absent. The ranking points on offer in Montreal, 1,000 for the champion, represent one of the clearest routes to the World No. 1 ranking Zverev has had in some time. He knows this. Every match he plays this week will be approached as part of something larger than a single tournament result.
His opening opponent comes from the Sonego-Griekspoor first-round match. Neither is likely to trouble Zverev, but the first match back is always the one to manage. A physical player who makes early contact on returns and forces Zverev to work from the baseline is exactly the kind of opponent the German will want to dispatch quickly before conserving energy for later rounds.
Felix Auger-Aliassime plays next, and the crowd will make their feelings known from the first ball. The Canadian, seeded second and playing at home in Montreal, opens against Luca Van Assche of France or a qualifier. Auger-Aliassime has never won the Rogers Cup. He has spoken about how much this tournament means to him. The home surface, the home crowd, and an open draw make 2026 the best chance he has had.
Shelton is the defending champion. He is the biggest server in the draw, the player most likely to win matches quickly on fast hard courts, and he plays well in Montreal. His opening match brings Jenson Brooksby or a qualifier. Once that is dealt with, the rest of the top half of the draw will take him more seriously.
Taylor Fritz is also in the field. He won the DC Open on Sunday, beating Rafael Jódar 7-6(2), 6-4 for his 11th ATP title. Fritz is in the same quarter as Zverev, setting up what could be one of the more interesting quarter-final scenarios in a draw without the top four in the world.
Toronto: Eala’s first WTA 1000
Two days ago, Alex Eala was ranked World No. 28. She won the DC Open, beat Jessica Pegula in the final, and arrived in Toronto ranked World No. 20, seeded 25th. Wednesday is her first match at a WTA 1000.
She faces Alycia Parks. It is a test of composure as much as anything else. A player who has just won their first tour title, particularly at the age of 21 and from a country without a deep tennis tradition at this level, faces two simultaneous challenges: managing the physical demands of back-to-back weeks on hard courts, and managing the expectation that comes with a title.
Eala has dealt with both of these before in juniors and on the challenger circuit. The WTA 1000 is a different scale. How she handles the transition between a WTA 500 title and her first main draw appearance at a 1000 will say a great deal about her ceiling heading into the US Open, which begins on 25 August.
Aryna Sabalenka is already through, having beaten Moyuka Uchijima 6-3, 6-3 on Tuesday. Iga Swiatek beat Sara Bejlek 6-0, 6-3 on the same day. Marta Kostyuk beat Katherine Sebov in three sets. The top seeds on the women’s side are largely where you would expect them to be at this stage.
Jessica Pegula, the World No. 3, also plays this week. She lost the DC Open final to Eala, 4-6, 6-4, 6-0, after leading the first set. Toronto offers her the opportunity to respond quickly. Losing a final in the opening set of a third set is the kind of result that stays with a player for a week unless another court can provide a different story. Pegula’s form before the DC Open final was strong, and at this level she remains one of the most consistent players in the draw.
Elena Rybakina, seeded second in Toronto, has not yet played. She enters in the later rounds, as does Sabalenka.
The bigger picture
The Rogers Cup runs to 13 August. The US Open begins 25 August. Every player in Montreal and Toronto is using this tournament as the final significant preparation for a Grand Slam. That context makes each match worth more than the ranking points attached to it.
Zverev needs a deep run to chase World No. 1. Auger-Aliassime needs a win on home soil. Shelton needs to prove the title was not an accident. Eala needs to show the DC Open win was the start of something, not a peak.
The tournament is halfway through its schedule. The part that matters is starting now.
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