Canadian Open hit by another big-name withdrawal as Jannik Sinner is handed a major boost

The 2024 Canadian Open has suffered another major blow with Carlos Alcaraz becoming the latest top player to withdraw from the ATP Masters 1000 tournament.

Alcaraz’s decision comes on the back of his quarter-final win over Tommy Paul at the Paris Olympics and the result means the Spaniard will feature in the medal matches at Roland Garros.

The semi-final matches take place on Friday with the bronze medal playoff set for Saturday while the gold medal match will be staged on Sunday.

The Canadian Open was always going to be hit by withdrawals due to the Paris Olympics. The main draw matches get underway on August 6 and those featuring during the business end at Roland Garros will find it difficult to travel to Montreal for the ATP Masters 1000.

Alcaraz has joined Novak Djokovic – who is also still in action at the Paris Olympics – on the list of players who have pulled out of the event.

“It has been a very long season for me and due to the accumulation of matches and fatigue, I will not be able to play in Montreal this year,” the four-time Grand Slam winner said.

“I was really looking forward to coming back to Canada and enjoying the love of the fans. Hope to see everyone in Montreal in the years to come!”

Alcaraz has had a busy programme recently as he reached the final at Wimbledon, beating Djokovic to win his fourth major, while he also won the French Open before that as he defeated Alexander Zverev in five sets in Paris.

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Defending champion Jannik Sinner, who missed the Olympics due to injury, will be the overwhelming favourite to win a second Canadian Open title.

The good news for Djokovic and Alcaraz is the fact that they don’t have too many points to defend in Canada. In fact, Djokovic has no points to defend as he didn’t play last year while Alcaraz lost in the quarter-final so will lose only 180 points.

But it does mean that Sinner will remain No 1 in the ATP Rankings after the tournament as Djokovic and Alcaraz were the only two players who were in with a shout of replacing him at the top.

Djokovic and Alcaraz were set to be seeded second and third, but it means Zverev – who lost in the quarter-final at the Olympics – will be the second seed and he will be followed by Daniil Medvedev, Alex de Minaur and Hubert Hurkacz.

The tournament could still be hit by another couple of blows as local hope Felix Auger-Aliassime also reached the semi-final in Paris where he will face Alcaraz.