The 2026 Canadian Open in Montreal was hit by an extraordinary wave of absentees before a single ball was struck in the main draw, and tournament director Valerie Tetreault is not mincing words about the fallout. Carlos Alcaraz had already been ruled out since April with a right wrist injury, but the same day brought the simultaneous withdrawals of Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic, just one week before the event began. Altogether, 16 players (eight men and eight women) pulled out of the combined ATP/WTA 1000 event.
Tetreault, a Canadian former WTA player who took charge of the National Bank Open in 2022, described the day Sinner and Djokovic both dropped out as among the most difficult in her four years running the tournament. Speaking to L'Equipe, she noted that her hardest days are usually tied to bad weather, not a cascade of high-profile absences arriving all at once. "If we had to write an ideal scenario, we wouldn't have written it like this," she said plainly.
Despite the chaos, Tetreault found reasons for optimism. The rise of young talents like Rafael Jodar, Jakub Mensik, and Arthur Fils gave her hope that Montreal could carve out an identity as something of a Next Gen showcase, offering local fans an early look at the future of the sport. She also admitted openly that a title defense from Ben Shelton, the most recognizable name remaining in the draw, would be a welcome result for organizers.
Beyond this year's tournament, Tetreault framed the late-withdrawal epidemic as a structural problem requiring urgent attention, confirming the event is already in active discussions with the ATP about addressing it at a tour-wide level. TennisDraw users leaning on Sinner and Alcaraz for deep bracket runs were among the first to feel the sting of this withdrawal wave.
