Top Stars Shift Focus from Olympics to Toronto:…

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The stage is set at Sobeys Stadium for the 2024 National Bank Open presented by Rogers. For the first time in the Open Era, the top players of the WTA will compete in Toronto, as opposed to Montreal, in an Olympic year.

This year’s field will be headlined by the reigning U.S. Open champion Coco Gauff, two-time reigning Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka, defending National Bank Open champion Jessica Pegula, and 2019 U.S. Open champion Bianca Andreescu.

From Paris to Toronto

Over two dozen players in this year’s singles and doubles draws flew straight from Paris, where they competed last week at the Olympics, to Toronto. During the first two media days of the National Bank Open, the participating players all spoke glowingly about the experience of representing their home country on the biggest international stage in sports.

“I think I'm just trying to learn from this experience and overall it was positive. I would a hundred percent choose to do it again, even if I lost first round in everything. It was something that was incredible,” Gauff said. “Being flag bearer was something I wouldn't have expected, and meeting all the incredible people that I met, I don't take it lightly. And every Olympics that I qualify in, I'll for sure play unless I'm injured.”

Fresh off winning bronze in mixed doubles with Félix Auger-Aliassime and becoming the first Canadian woman to win an Olympic medal in tennis, Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski is reuniting with partner Erin Routliffe, with whom she won the U.S. Open last year, for the first time since they reached the Wimbledon final earlier this summer. Dabrowski and Routliffe, whose successful partnership also began around this time last year in Montreal, are the top seeds this week.

Reflecting on her historic achievement a few days ago, Dabrowski admitted that, while she has won Grand Slams and the Billie Jean King Cup in the past, an Olympic medal has “definitely been the most recognizable” piece of hardware she has added to her trophy cabinet. “It means so much because the Olympics has always been something that I hold in such high regard and to actually get a medal really is like fulfilling a childhood dream,” she said.

In the singles draw, top seed Gauff — who has reached the quarter-finals in all three of her previous appearances and even won the National Bank Open doubles title with compatriot Jessica Pegula a couple of years ago to become the new World No. 1 in doubles — insisted that she is keeping her own expectations to a minimum, especially since she was just “on clay three days ago.”

No. 3 seed Pegula, who beat Swiatek and Gauff on her way to the title in Montreal last year, admitted to reporters that “it hasn’t been the smoothest year for me” and that she has struggled to reproduce the same consistency that had once cemented her spot at the top of the game.

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“It's been full of a lot of different challenges, but honestly, I kind of knew every year is not going to be perfect. I've had a lot of tough years before early on in my career that weren't very good, and I was able to turn that around,” Pegula said. “I'm still hopeful coming into the hard courts for the rest of the year that I can kind of turn that around. I know that's where most of my results tend to lie.”

Pegula noted that she has reached the semifinal or better in her last three appearances at this event. “Something that I use when I come back and why I've always had good results in Canada is I've always felt very comfortable,” she said. “I think, growing up in the northeast, it feels a little bit like home to me and I like that feeling.”

The Canadian Contingent

While no additional local players were able to make it through both rounds of qualifying during the 407 ETR Family Weekend, there will be four Canadians in the singles main draw: Andreescu, No. 15 seed Leylah Fernandez, seasoned veteran Rebecca Marino, and 19-year-old rising star Marina Stakusic.

Andreescu, whose magical run to the National Bank Open title in 2019 set the stage for her triumph at Flushing Meadows just weeks later, will face a tough test in Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko on Tuesday evening. The Mississauga native, who has lost to the eventual finalist or champion in four of the five events she has played since returning to the tour in May, knows that she still has the level to compete with the best in the world.

“I've been counting my blessings even through the hard times and that's honestly what's gotten me to the point of not wanting, as harsh as it sounds, quit the sport because it was very brutal at some point,” Andreescu said of the last five years of her career, which have been plagued by injuries. “But just having that faith really helped me stay in the game, and coming back here definitely helps with my mental health because I get to see all of you and all the amazing fans, my family and friends, and the crowd always makes me smile, so it's amazing.”

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Fernandez, who will begin her campaign against China’s Zhang Shuai on Wednesday night, is looking to recapture the same form that she displayed en route to reaching the U.S. Open final in 2021. “There's been a lot of defeats this year where it's been extremely close, where I've had my opportunities [and] it just slips away,” admitted the Montreal native. “But I do feel like if I keep working hard and I keep going in this direction and just adjust a couple of my mistakes and details, the results are going to come.”

Marino, formerly ranked No. 38 in the world, will be making her ninth appearance at the National Bank Open overall and just her second in Toronto since 2011. The Vancouverite, who won two ITF W100 titles this year, said she is feeling “really good” heading into her opening match with Poland’s Magda Linette.

“Coming off two titles this year so far, two biggest titles of my career, is really encouraging — something I'm very happy about,” Marino said. “I'm hoping to continue that momentum into the hard-court swing, which is my favorite time of year, and I'm very grateful for the wild card into the main draw this year.”

Stakusic, who is making her main-draw debut at the National Bank Open, said she has attended this event every year since she was six or seven years old. And while she would always closely follow the Canadian players, she has one memory that stands out from the rest. “I remember getting two of Djokovic's rackets when he won in 2012, the final, so that was the coolest thing ever for me and my siblings. He just tossed them up after he won. We were sitting on center court, so that's for sure one of the best memories I have here,” she said.

The Return of Naomi Osaka

The most decorated player at this year’s event, four-time Grand Slam champion and former World No. 1 Naomi Osaka, will be making her fifth main-draw appearance at the National Bank Open after being given a wild card.

A lot has changed since Osaka’s run to the quarter-finals in Toronto in 2019, when she lost a memorable match to Serena Williams. She picked up two Slams in late 2020/early 2021, took time away from the sport to deal with her own mental health challenges and later became an outspoken advocate on the subject, and gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Shai, last year.

Osaka’s return to the professional circuit has not been without its challenges. Despite showing glimpses of her old form, the Japanese superstar has been consistently saddled with difficult draws, including a second-round tussle with eventual champion Swiatek at Roland-Garros. But after getting through the European swing, which she considers her most difficult portion of the season, Osaka said she feels “great” to be back on the surface where she won all of her previous Slams.

“As soon as my foot touched the hard court, I felt like Sailor Moon, just transforming,” Osaka said with a smile. “Honestly, I thought I would feel a lot of pressure in this section [of the season], and maybe once I start playing my matches, I might [feel that] a little bit. But I think as hard as the European swing was, I feel like I learned a lot from it, and I hope [it’s] going to make me a more complete player, and I'm really excited to see what happens here.”

Osaka will have her work cut out for her in the form of three-time Grand Slam finalist and No. 9 seed Ons Jabeur, whom she beat in straight sets in their only previous meeting at the 2021 Australian Open.

“I was like, ‘Oh,’” Osaka said of her reaction to her first-round opponent. “But I think for me, thinking about playing Ons, it just makes me feel like we're going to have so much fun. She's such a great person, so there's not too much pressure. [I’m not] going into the match thinking, oh, I want to win so bad, whatever. I just feel like I have to focus on my side of the court, because obviously, she does a lot of incredible things, and it should be really fun.”

Quick Hits

Trading Pins With Rafa

Asked if there were any athletes that she was particularly excited to meet at the Olympics, Gauff had a laundry list of answers: swimmer Katie Ledecky, sprinters Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson, gymnasts Simone Biles and Sunisa Lee, the entire U.S. men’s basketball team. But “I didn't expect for other athletes to ask me for photos or anything. My teammate Taylor [Fritz] was like, ‘You won the U.S. Open!’” she said. “It was just very weird. I wasn't expecting in the Village [for] people coming up to ask [for] photos with me.”

Gauff, however, did have two off-court goals at the Olympics: get photos with Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray. (She was happy to report that she was able to make good on both promises to herself.) “Ironically, they were tennis players so I could have gotten them at any tournament, but I just felt maybe, I had the confidence. I was like, "It's Olympics." Other athletes were asking them, so I felt [it was] not out of the ordinary, whereas here they probably don't get asked as much at tennis tournaments,” she said, laughing.

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She added: “I finally got a picture with Rafa. I traded pins with him. I didn't post a picture, but I probably should have. Carlos didn't have any pins, so I didn't let him be in the selfie. So it was just me and Rafa.”

To Be the Best, You Have to Learn From the Best

Since returning from maternity leave, Osaka has “gotten a lot more comfortable” in her body and has begun to work toward finding the same kind of explosive movement that defined her early success. “After pregnancy, I wasn't really sure how my movement would be. I remember being on the track at UCLA and almost crying in frustration because I felt like I couldn't run as fast as I wanted to, and it kind of felt like I was in a body suit that was just not performing the way I wanted,” she explained. “And now, to be here I think is a really incredible achievement.”

Osaka has even drawn inspiration from one of her peers. “Honestly, I was stalking Iga,” she said with a laugh. “I was watching her practice at the Olympics, and for me that's something I want to do more — watch the great players — because there's always something I can pick up on. And I know she has one of the better footwork, or probably the best footwork skills on the WTA, so I'm just trying to copy a little bit.”

The WTA's best return to Toronto this summer for the National Bank Open August 4 to 12, 2024 at Sobeys Stadium. 2024 Tickets are on sale. Get your tickets today!

Feature Photo: Gyles Dias