The Canadian Open is the first leg of the North American triple-header and Aryna Sabalenka will be the first name on the draw sheet with world No 2 Elena Rybakina headlining the bottom half of the draw.
The hard-court swing comprises the WTA 1000 event in Toronto, after which players will head to the United States for the Cincinnati Open before it ends on a high at the US Open in New York.
Last year, Canadian Victoria Mboko produced a fairytale run as she delighted home fans by winning the tournament on her debut, beating the likes of Coco Gauff, Rybakina and Naomi Osaka en route to her maiden title.
But after the highs of 2025 came the lows of 2026 as Mboko won’t defend her trophy due to injury.
Although Mboko won’t play, there will be four former Canadian Open champions in the main draw as Jessica Pegula (2022, 2023), Bianca Andreescu (2019), Elina Svitolina (2017) and Belinda Bencic (2015) will all feature.
How many players will feature at Toronto line-up?
It is a 96-player main draw WTA 1000 tournament and the top 32 highest-ranked players in the draw are seeded and earn a bye into the second round with the seedings based on the WTA Rankings of 27 July.
Eight players have earned wildcard entries and they are Canadians Andreescu, Ariana Arseneault, Cadence Brace, Kayla Cross, Rebecca Marino, Katherine Sebov and Carol Zhao while American Venus Williams is the only non-Canadian to get a wildcard.
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Organisers were initially hopeful that Williams’ sister, fellow great Serena Williams, would also accept a wildcard, but she has decided to turn down the offer as she is still recovering from a knee injury.
Fifteen players will earn main draw spots via the qualifying and the rest receive entries via their ranking.
About The Seeds…
World No 1 Sabalenka will be the top seed and she is followed by Rybakina, Pegula, Gauff, Mirra Andreeva, Linda Noskova, Iga Swiatek, Amanda Anisimova, Svitolina and Marta Kostyuk.
Former world No 1 Swiatek’s drop down the rankings means she faces a tough draw as she will probably meet the likes of Pegula, Gauff and Noskova before even facing either Rybakina or Sabalenka in the semi-final/final.
Naomi Osaka, Bencic, Maja Chwalinska, Madison Keys, Barbora Krejcikova, Alex Eala and Leylah Fernandez are also among the players who will be seeded in the draw.
Filipina Eala will be seeded on the back of her run to the round of 16 at Wimbledon. Although she currently sits at No 28 in the WTA Rankings, she will be seeded 25th due to a couple of withdrawals.
Who Will Miss The Canadian Open?
Besides Mboko, world No 6 and Wimbledon runner-up Karolina Muchova, Jasmine Paolini and Hailey Baptiste are the other seeded players who have pulled out of the Toronto event.
Emma Raducanu, Dayana Yastremska and Petra Marcinko will also not feature in the main draw.
Key Dates And Draw…
The main draw for this year’s Canadian Open will get underway on 2 August at the Sobeys Stadium in Toronto with the women’s singles finals set for Thursday, 13 August.
The official draw ceremony is set for Friday, 31 July.
