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It’s no surprise that a lot of players have withdrawn from the WTA 1000 in Toronto, and the ATP Tour Masters 1000 in Montreal.
It was expected, even with the events pushed back a day to a Tuesday start. But even that was still just a few days after the end of a most gruelling Olympics – a gruelling, non-stop, surface-changing summer for most, in fact.
So … it’s not great.
In Toronto, the list includes Olympic bronze medallist and world No. 1 Iga Swiatek, Elena Rybakina (No. 4), No. 5 Jasmine Paolini (who is in the women’s doubles gold-medal match on Sunday), Danielle Collins (who appeared to suffer an abdominal injury in her quarterfinal loss to Swiatek in Paris), Barbora Krejckova, Marketa Vondrousova (who missed both Wimbledon and the Olympics) and Caroline Garcia.
Swiatek has to wait until at least Saturday, after the gold-medal match, to receive her bronze medal at the ceremony before she can even leave Paris.
Still to be determined are Ons Jabeur, who withdrew from the Citi Open in D.C. with a shoulder injury after winning one doubles match and Liudmila Samsonova, who retired in her opening singles match there.
Hopefully that’s it. It’s a lot, though – six of the current top-10 players.
Men’s side also dotted with withdrawals
On the men’s side, so far, the list looks like this:
No. 2 Novak Djokovic and No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz – who are meeting in the gold-medal match in Paris on Sunday; No. 6 Alex de Minaur (who has dealt with a leg injury since Wimbledon and had to withdraw from the singles in Paris); Lorenzo Musetti (who lost a tough one against Djokovic in the men’s semifinals Friday and will play Félix Auger-Aliassime for third place on Saturday). Also: No. 18 Sebastian Baez, No. 26 Francisco Cerundolo, No. 30 Jiri Lehecka (long-term back injury), No. 35 Jan-Lennard Struff and No. 41 Zhang Zhizen, who won the silver medal in mixed doubles at the Olympics on Friday.
If he pulls off a bronze, Auger-Aliassime also has to wait – the men’s gold-medal match isn’t until Sunday afternoon – in Paris to get his medal.
At least Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev are in town already.
But there are questions marks: Hubert Hurkacz (who had knee surgery after Wimbledon), Grigor Dimitrov (who withdrew from Washington with a shoulder issue) and Holger Rune (who withdrew from the Olympics with an ongoing wrist concern).
There are about 20 hours until the draw. But even if the draw is made, that won’t necessarily stop the bleeding.
Hopefully, this is the worst of it.
It was expected, and some version of this happens every Olympic year. But it’s not fun.
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I feel for Felix. The NBO is not just in his country, but also, in his hometown, but he must be exhausted, & he still has another match to go. And, as you have said, if he wins on Saturday, he has to wait until Sunday to get his medal. Then, get to Montreal for his first match on a different surface. I wouldn’t blame him if he withdraws, but if he doesn’t, I expect he will be far from his best. Also, hope he doesn’t injure himself with his body being tired.
He doesn’t have to play until Wednesday night, so that’s helpful.