Eight players on the WTA side and eight players on the ATP side won’t feature at the 2026 Canadian Open as they are either out injured or opted not to compete at the joint ATP-WTA 1000 tournament.

The Canadian Open marks the first event of the North American hard-court swing triple-header as it will be followed by the Cincinnati Open in Mason from 13-23 August and the US Open in New York with the season-ending Grand Slam getting underway on 30 August.

The first-round matches get underway on Sunday, 2 August with the women’s tournament taking place at Sobeys Stadium in Toronto, while the men are competing at the IGA Stadium in Montreal.

But the tournament has struggled to get the top players, especially on the ATP Tour, to compete in recent years as Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic missed the 2025 edition and the trio will again be absent this year.

Alcaraz, of course, is still not fully recovered from the wrist injury he sustained at the Barcelona Open in April, but he is expected to return at Cincinnati.

Canadian Open News

But Sinner and Djokovic have decided not to compete in Montreal as they wanted an extended break after Wimbledon.

The trio were all due to be seeded in the top 10 and they are joined on the seeded withdrawal list by Alexander Bublik (11) and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (No 25) with Zizou Bergs and Raphael Collignon getting the nod for the final two seeding spots.

ATP Canadian Open withdrawal list

- Jannik Sinner replaced by Valentin Royer

- Carlos Alcaraz replaced by Jan-Lennard Struff

- Novak Djokovic replaced by Marton Fucsovics

- Alexander Bublik replaced by Rinky Hijikata

- Alejandro Davidovich Fokina replaced by Jenson Brooksby

- Ethan Quinn replaced by Daniel Merida

- Tomas Machac replaced by James Duckworth

- Sebastian Korda replaced by Luca Van Assche

American Ethan Quinn has become the latest men’s player to withdraw as the world No 46 is struggling with a metatarsal injury in his right foot.

WTA Canadian Open withdrawal list

The tournament, though, suffered the biggest blow on the women’s side as home favourite and defending champion Victoria Mboko was ruled out due to a knee injury she sustained at the Queen’s Club Championship.

The Canadian, who won the title on her debut 12 months ago, was due to be seeded 12th while 2026 Wimbledon runner-up and world No 6 Karolina Muchova will also be absent as she underwent a small operation a fortnight ago.

World No 15 Italy Jasmine Paolini is still recovering from a foot injury No 32 Hailey Baptiste is still recovering after picking up a serious knee injury at the French Open.

- Karolina Muchova replaced by Taylor Townsend

- Victoria Mboko replaced by Karolina Pliskova

- Jasmine Paolini replaced by Tamara Korpatsch

- Hailey Baptiste replaced by Anna Bondar

- Emma Raducanu replaced by Eva Lys

- Dayana Yastremska replaced by Renata Zarazua

- Laura Siegemund replaced by Wang Xiyu

- Petra Marcinko replaced by Alycia Parks

Although four seeded players are absent from the women’s tournament, none of the big-name players has opted to skip the event as world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka leads the field with No 2 Elena Rybakina, No 3 Jessica Pegula, No 4 Coco Gauff, No 5 Mirra Andreeva, No 7 Linda Noskova, No 8 Iga Swiatek, No 9 Amanda Anisimova and No 10 Elina Svitolina all competing.