{"id":301442,"date":"2025-07-29T14:45:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T14:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/301442\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T14:45:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T14:45:12","slug":"ben-shelton-gives-his-verdict-on-jannik-sinner-novak-djokovic-and-carlos-alcaraz-all-withdrawing-from-the-canadian-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/301442\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Shelton gives his verdict on Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz all withdrawing from the Canadian Open"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ben Shelton is probably a higher seed than he would have expected to be for this year\u2019s Canadian Open.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shelton, who is currently at a career-high ranking<\/a>, will be the fourth seed for the Masters 1000 tournament in Toronto this year.<\/p>\n

There have been many withdrawals from the Toronto event, including world number one Jannik Sinner withdrawing from the Canadian Open<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sinner<\/a> is one of four players inside the top six of the ATP<\/a> rankings that has pulled out, with Carlos Alcaraz also missing the Canadian Open<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"BenPhoto by Daniel Kopatsch\/Getty ImagesBen Shelton says what he thinks about big name withdrawals from the Canadian Open<\/p>\n

The top four seeds for this year\u2019s Canadian Open<\/a> are Alexander Zverev<\/a>, Taylor Fritz<\/a>, Lorenzo Musetti<\/a> and Shelton<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While there is seemingly a potential opportunity for these players to take advantage of the absences of the likes of Sinner, Alcaraz<\/a> and Novak Djokovic<\/a>, fourth seed Shelton has insisted that it is still \u2018just as difficult\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I guess a sense of opportunity,\u201d Shelton said in his pre-tournament press conference at the Canadian Open. \u201cI think a lot of players probably feel that. For me, I\u2019m excited whenever it\u2019s a big tournament, no matter who is in it, and the more top players in it, the better, you know. I\u2019m sure that the fans feel the same way.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome unfortunate pullouts of the tournament this year, four of the top six, I think it is. But, yeah, you know, there\u2019s a lot of great players, hungry, in-form players, who are looking to do some damage and, yeah, I think I\u2019m one of those guys.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we\u2019ll see. It\u2019s just as tough. There\u2019s so many great players on tour. It\u2019s not like, Oh, you know, a few of the top guys or guys at the top aren\u2019t playing, you know, it\u2019s a free-for-all (laughing). I think it\u2019s still, you know, just as difficult, and another opportunity to just get matches in and gain confidence going into the US Open.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The Canadian Open has come under a lot of scrutiny this year, with Frances Tiafoe calling a big change to the tournament \u2018garbage\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ben Shelton\u2019s potential run to the Canadian Open title<\/p>\n

As the fourth seed, Shelton receives an automatic bye to the second round, where he will play qualifier and former top 20 player Adrian Mannarino.<\/p>\n

The first seed that Shelton can play is his compatriot Brandon Nakashima, who he has never lost a single set to in their four previous meetings.<\/p>\n

Some of the other potential threats to Shelton in his half of the draw include Fritz, Tiafoe<\/a> and Flavio Cobolli<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some potential final opponents for Shelton include Zverev, Musetti, Holger Rune<\/a> and Casper Ruud<\/a>.<\/p>\n\nCanadian Open 2025<\/strong><\/td>\nBen Shelton\u2019s Potential Draw<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nFirst Round<\/td>\nReceives a bye as the fourth seed<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nSecond Round<\/td>\nAdrian Mannarino (Q)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nThird Round<\/td>\nBrandon Nakashima (25)\/Ethan Quinn<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nFourth Round<\/td>\nFlavio Cobolli (13)\/Felix Auger-Aliassime (21)\/Fabian Marozsan\/Alexis Galarneau (WC)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nQuarterfinal<\/td>\nFrances Tiafoe (7)\/Alex de Minaur (9)\/Stefanos Tsitsipas (23)\/Cameron Norrie (31)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nSemifinal<\/td>\nTaylor Fritz (2)\/Andrey Rublev (6)\/Jakub Mensik (12)\/Arthur Fils (15)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nFinal<\/td>\nAlexander Zverev (1)\/Lorenzo Musetti (3)\/Holger Rune (5)\/Casper Ruud (8)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Shelton has only ever won two of his four previous matches at the Canadian Open, and has never before reached the semifinals of a Masters 1000 level tournament.<\/p>\n

The world number seven will play his first match against Mannarino, who he has lost both of his two previous matches against, on Wednesday, July 30.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Shelton is probably a higher seed than he would have expected to be for this year\u2019s Canadian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[4294,15571,66689,6359,4718,4295,79,1068,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-301442","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-atp","9":"tag-ben-shelton","10":"tag-canadian-open","11":"tag-carlos-alcaraz","12":"tag-jannik-sinner","13":"tag-novak-djokovic","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-tennis","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114937064616067651","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}