National Bank Open: Swiatek, Osaka, Shelton bring star power to centre court


Are you still buzzing from Canada’s own Victoria Mboko upsetting world No. 2 Coco Gauff Saturday night in the women’s draw of the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers?

With Mboko’s 6-1, 6-4 win over the No. 1 seed, the world No. 85 from Burlington, Ont., is moving on to the quarter-final of her home tournament. She’s the only Canadian still standing in the NBO singles draw. What a performance from the teenager, sports fans. Now Mboko needs some rest after the biggest win of her career — she’ll be back in action in Montreal on Monday.

In the meantime, let’s focus on today, with plenty on the NBO schedule in both Toronto and Montreal to look forward to.

In Montreal’s afternoon draw, the afternoon features former World No. 1 Naomi Osaka taking on Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova, the world No. 386, who just scored a major upset herself in taking out defending champion Jessica Pegula. Sevastova will be looking for another upset as she takes on Osaka.

Osaka is a four-time Grand Slam winner who’s currently ranked 49th, having climbed nearly 100 spots this calendar year. After giving birth to her daughter in July of 2023, Osaka got back in the winner’s circle earlier this season, winning a WTA 125 event for her first title since 2021.

Osaka is an absolute must-see, and so too is Sevastova. The former world No. 11 returned from maternity leave herself just last year, and took out Pegula, the world No. 4, in three sets.

Since Mboko just upset Gauff, Iga Swiatek is the top seed remaining in the NBO in Montreal. The six-time Grand Slam champion — she won her most recent just last month at Wimbledon — takes on Denmark’s Clara Tauson, the world No. 19.

The former World No. 1, Swiatek is 3-0 against Tauson overall and beat her most recently at Wimbledon.

That’s Swiatek’s lone title win so far this season, but the 24-year-old from Poland— now the world No. 3 — has 23 career titles in all, and nobody would be surprised if she added No. 24 in Montreal.

Shelton back on centre court

Some people were made for the bright lights of centre court, and that seems to apply to American Ben Shelton, at least if you saw his last three-set win — two sets went to tiebreaker, including the deciding third — over fellow American Brandon Nakashima.

The 22-year-old lefty was cheering, jumping, fist-pumping, and looking over at his dad, who’s also his coach, after nearly every point. His dad/coach Bryan responded with many fist pumps of his own. The match was energy-packed.

Shelton is the world No. 7 and the tournament’s No. 4 seed, and he’ll take on Italy’s Flavio Cobolli, the 13th seed, at 7 p.m., again under those bright lights at Sobeys Stadium.

Shelton cracked the quarter-final of Wimbledon last month, and the semi-final of the Australian Open earlier this year.

Later on centre court is the NBO’s no. 2 seed, American Taylor Fritz, who dispatched the last Canadian man standing on Friday with a straight-sets win over Gabriel Diallo. Fritz plays Czechia’s Jiri Lehecka, the 19th seed.

Women’s: Day session, 12:30 p.m., Sportsnet 360, Sportsnet+; Evening session, 6 p.m., Sportsnet ONE, Sportsnet+
Men’s: Day session, 12:30 p.m., Sportsnet ONE, Sportsnet+; Evening session, 7 p.m., Sportsnet, Sportsnet+

Women’s in Montreal (all times ET)

Centre Court (starts at 12:30 p.m.)
[6] Madison Keys (U.S.) vs. [11] Karolina Muchova (Czechia) 
Naomi Osaka (Japan) vs. Anastasija Sevastova (Latvia)

Not before 6 p.m. 
Clara Tauson (Denmark) vs. [2] Iga Swiatek (Poland) 
[5] Amanda Anisimova (U.S.) vs. [10] Elina Svitolina (Ukraine) 

Rogers Court (starts at 12:30 p.m.)
Shuko Aoyama (Japan) / Cristina Bucsa (Spain) vs. Caroline Dolehide (U.S.) / Sofia Kenin (U.S.) 
NB 3:00 PM Barbora Krejcikova (Czechia) / Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia) vs. Coco Gauff (U.S.) / McCartney Kessler (U.S.) 

Men’s in Toronto (all times ET)

Centre Court (starts at 12:30 p.m.)
[7] Frances Tiafoe (U.S.) vs. [9] Alex de Minaur (Australia)
[6] Andrey Rublev (Russia) vs. [20] Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (Spain)

Not before 7 p.m.
[13] Flavio Cobolli (Italy) vs. [4] Ben Shelton (U.S.)
[19] Jiri Lehecka (Czechia) vs. [2] Taylor Fritz (U.S.)

Motorola razr Grandstand Court (stars at 12:30 p.m.)
[1] Marcelo Arevalo (El Salvador) / Mate Pavic (Croatia) vs. Nikola Mektic (Croatia) / Rajeev Ram (U.S.)
Austin Krajicek (U.S.) / Horacio Zeballos (Argentina) vs. [6] Joe Salisbury (Great Britain) / Neal Skupski (Great Britain)

Not before 4 p.m.
Andre Goransson (Sweden) / Sem Verbeek (Netherlands) vs. Maximo Gonzalez (Argentina) / Andres Molteni (Argentina)
[3] Harri Heliovaara (Finland) / Henry Patten (Great Britain) vs. Fernando Romboli (Brazil) / John-Patrick Smith (Australia)

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