For two decades, tennis fans witnessed the extreme domination of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray—a magical quartet that reigned supreme in men’s tennis.
But times have changed, and the new generation has arrived. The National Bank Open presented by Rogers is the clear-cut demonstration of that, since the average age of the 16 seeds is under 23 years old.
World No.1 Daniil Medvedev of Russia—the 26-year-old veteran—sits at the top of the draw, but much of the attention will be on 19-year-old Carlos Alcaraz (2). Currently ranked No.4, the Spaniard has been collecting trophies left and right this season and will be focused on adding Montréal to his already impressive list of achievements.
The draw, which was held on Friday afternoon in downtown Montréal, had different fates in store for the competitors including the top eight, who all have a first-round bye.
It won’t be an easy entrance for Medvedev, who’ll face the winner of the match between Sebastian Baez of Argentina and the brilliant Nick Kyrgios. Alcaraz will face either Canadian Vasek Pospisil or American Tommy Paul.
The next seeds are Stefanos Tsitsipas (3) of Greece, Casper Ruud (4) of Norway and Andrey Rublev (5) of Russia.
The sixth seed is none other than Félix Auger-Aliassime, who has a fairly decent draw. In the second round, he’ll be up against a qualifier. If he wins, the tough but beatable Van de Zandschulp or Kecmanovic will be waiting in the wings.
It’s a more challenging road for Alexis Galarneau, who’ll battle the talented and accomplished Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria. The winner will meet up with either Denis Shapovalov or Alex de Minaur.
The first round is chock-full of exciting matches. From Diego Schwartzman vs. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, to Stan Wawrinka vs. Emil Ruusuvuori, Holger Rune vs. Pablo Carreno Busta, Gael Monfils vs. Pedro Martinez and, most importantly, Andy Murray vs. Taylor Fritz, the stakes are high and unpredictable.
