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It’s the first year for the expanded draws at the National Bank Opens in Toronto and Montreal – 96-player draws instead of 56.

And so the entry lists have expanded greatly, as officially announced over the last two days.

Now – the caveat on these “big reveal” entry list announcements is that if you are eligible by ranking to get into the main draw, you’re automatically entered unless you proactively pull out. And with the National Bank Open being a 1000 tournament, it’s mandatory for most players with the penalty being a “zero-pointer” on their rankings record.

So some players won’t end up making the date for the event, which starts so much earlier this year – July 26 – because of the expanded draws.

Still, almost everyone will be on hand.

And in Toronto, that includes No. 1 Jannik Sinner and No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz.

Toronto has the world’s top 73 men

Click here for the full Toronto player list.

Novak Djokovic (No. 6) is on this preliminary entry list. But he’s playing a lot less tennis in the sunset of his career. And it’s hard to fathom that he’ll head to North America this early, and stay for some seven weeks. Especially with another Masters 1000 right on the heels of Toronto in Cincinnati followed quickly by the US Open.

But you never know.

Others whose presence should be monitored are Holger Rune (No. 8), who has a knee issue and was ousted in the first round of Wimbledon. And Casper Ruud (No. 14), who didn’t play Wimbledon at all because of a knee issue.

Entered with a protected ranking is Jenson Brooksby (No. 52).

The last player straight in – for now – is Italy’s Mattia Bellucci.

The next alternates in if there are withdrawals are Roberto Carballes Baena, Roman Safiullin and Aleksandar Kovacevic.

Straight into the draw without needing wild cards are three Canadians: Félix Auger-Aliassime, Denis Shapovalov and Gabriel Diallo. That helps a lot for the younger guys looking for those free passes.

Although, with the expanded draws, there are now five wild cards on the men’s side.

Four protected rankings in Montreal

Click here for the full Montreal player list.

In Montreal, the top 68 players are straight into the main draw on the original entry list – plus four players with protected rankings.

Marketa Vondrousova (with an actual ranking of No. 73) needs to use her protected ranking of No. 18 to get in. Although it’s entirely possible she might squeeze in with her actual ranking when all is said and done.

Also using protected rankings are Sorana Cirstea (No. 37), Zhu Li (No. 50) and Anastasija Sevastova (No. 65)

On the Canadian side, only Leylah Fernandez is straight into the main draw.

Bianca Andreescu and Victoria Mboko are already announced as wild cards. Which is as it should be.

With the expanded draw, there are now eight wild cards on the women’s side. It might be tough to legitimately fill them although you’d expect Rebecca Marino, Marina Stakusic, Carson Branstine and Kayla Cross to get four of them.

Former top players Maria Sakkari (at No. 77) and Victoria Azarenka (No. 87) no doubt will come knocking at the tournament director’s virtual door.

(We’ll spare you the fictional “I can’t wait to play in Montreal/Toronto” quotes from players in these press releases).

As with the men, every player who is eligible by ranking is entered.

The last player directly is in Yuliia Starodubtseva of Ukraine, at No. 68.

The next ones in, if there are withdrawals, are No. 69 Suzan Lamens, No. 70 Greet Minnen and No. 71 Renata Zarazua.