Coco Gauff captured her first doubles title in over a year and then hilariously remarked that her "temporary return" to doubles was instant success.
After disappointingly seeing her Montreal singles campaign end in the round-of-16, the American stayed in Canada because she still had doubles going on with fellow American McCartney Kessler. In their first appearance as a pair, the American duo won a total of five matches and impressively beat No. 3 seeds Taylor Townsend and Zhang Shuai 6-4 1-6 13-11 in the final.
For Gauff, this was her third doubles tournament of the year. Previously, the American teamed up with Robin Montgomery in Madrid and with Alexandra Eala in Rome, respectively. The 21-year-old now has 10 doubles titles in her collection.
"Lol temporarily came out of doubles retirement and got a dub!" the top-ranked American female tennis player wrote on her Instagram Story.
Gauff enjoyed big success with Jessica Pegula but they stopped playing together
Across the 2022 and 2023 seasons, Gauff and Pegula were one of the top teams on the WTA Tour and they won a total of five doubles titles during that period and were also finalists at the 2022 French Open.
Going into the 2024 Paris Olympics, their goal was to capture the gold medal – or at least win any medal. But those hopes were quickly squashed after they picked up a surprise round-of-16 loss to Karolina Muchova and Linda Noskova.
Since then, Gauff and Pegula haven't played together. Earlier this year, Pegula insisted everything was fine between the two but they simply stopped playing doubles because they wanted to focus on singles.
"Coco and I played so much for a couple years there. We did great. A lot of really amazing results and memories. At the same time doing well in the singles court, we obviously didn't want to play as much anymore. The schedule just gets really, really tough. I've barely played this year, probably won't play any of the Grand Slams this year," the 31-year-old explained.
By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, August 6, 2025 Photo credit: National Bank Open by Rogers Facebook
A titanic tiebreak tug of war culminated with Karen Khachanov making the pivotal pull.
Khachanov denied match point in the 12th game edging top-seeded Alexander Zverev 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(4) in a near three-hour thriller to advance to his second career ATP Masters 1000 final in Toronto tonight.
The 16th-ranked Russian reached his first ATP Masters 1000 final since he stunned Novak Djokovic to capture the 2018 Paris Masters Indoors.
Khachanov will face the winner of tonight’s all-American semifinal between second-seeded Taylor Fritz and fourth-seeded Ben Shelton in tomorrow’s final.
Tonight’s opening semifinal was a rematch of the 2021 Olympic gold-medal match that saw Zverev prevail 6-3, 6-1.
Though Khachanov took the court armed with an ignominious 2-21 record vs. Top 3-ranked opponents, he showed major mettle at crunch time—and was aided by a fortunate bounce off the net that kept him in this tight test.
“Generally I think today also I didn’t feel my best on the court, didn’t play my best tennis,” Zverev said. “Also, the first set was terrible, so I kind of gave him a head start, and he’s too good to not use that.
“So, yeah, I still had match point, so it’s upsetting that I lost this match. But that’s the way it is, we move on, I go to Cincinnati and try to do better.”
Serving down match point at 5-6 in the decider, Khachanov challenged Zverev’s vaunted backhand. The German lined up his two-hander and lashed a liner that had match-ending winner written all over it.
The return crashed into the top of the tape, hung in the air for a split second then dripped back onto Zverev’s side of the net as Khachanov breathed a sigh of relief.
That reprieve emboldened the Russian, who ripped a forehand down the line holding to force the decisive tiebreaker.
When Zverev zapped a swinging forehand volley winner he was up 3-1 in the tiebreaker and seemingly in command.
Khachanov had other ideas.
The 11th-seeded Khachanov tore through five points in a row coaxing a couple of backhand errors and knocking off a high forehand volley. Zverev’s two-handed backhand is one of the best in the sport, but he netted that trusty weapon to face three match points at 6-3.
On his second match point, Khachanov cranked the wide serve closing a two hour, 52-minute battle.
It was Khachanov’s first Top 10 win of the season, his first win over Zverev since the 2019 Montreal and sends him into his first final of the year.
In the opening set, Zverev more than doubled Khachanov’s winner total—11 to 5—but Khachanov cashed in on the lone break point of the set and that made all the difference. Khachanov converted the lone break point of the set for 3-1 and consolidated for 4-1. The bearded Russian converted his third set point for a one-set lead.
On the fast Toronto court, neither man was severely stressed on serve in the second set until the final game when Khachanov played a horrific game and Zverev broke to snatch the set and forced a decider.
This match marked the eighth time in the tournament a match was decided in the final-set tiebreaker.
By Richard Pagliaro | Tuesday, August 5, 2025 Photo credit: National Bank Open by Rogers Facebook
Demonstrative displays aren’t typically part of Taylor Fritz’s arsenal.
Tonight, Fritz fired the exclamation point to punctuate a declarative victory.
On match point, Fritz slammed his 20th ace completing a 6-3, 7-6(4) win over Andrey Rublev to power into his fifth semifinal of the season at the National Bank Open in Toronto.
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The second-seeded Fritz posted his 20th hard-court win of the season—he’s the third man to do it—advancing to his 38th career semifinal.
“I would say tonight I felt the best about my game, just striking the ball-wise,” Fritz said. “I feel like all week it’s kind of been flying, tough to control, easy to miss the ball.
“It’s not just me, just watching any of the other matches, I can seeing people are hitting the ball a lot softer than they normally do, they’re playing a lot safer, people are making more mistakes. I think conditions here, it’s just tough in general to play.
“Tonight for sure it was the most I felt like I could control the ball, and also kind of go after it and feel like I was confident in where it was going. That’s obviously a good thing going into the semis.”
Wimbledon semifinalist Fritz will face fourth-seeded compatriot Ben Shelton for a spot in the final. Shelton slammed 11 aces defeating ninth-seeded Alex de Minaur 6-3, 6-4 in tonight’s second quarterfinal. Fritz, who is 1-0 against Shelton, is bidding for his first hard-court final since he beat de Minaur and Alexander Zverev in succession to reach the ATP Finals title match in Turin last November.
“I feel like when we played the first time his serve was still huge,” Fritz said of Shelton. “I mean, maybe the spots are better. His serve was really good when I played him, whenever it was, like two, three years ago, I’m not sure.”
Bursting out of the blocks quickly, Fritz flew eight points in a row surging to a 3-0 lead against the 2024 Canadian Open finalist.
The 27-year-old Fritz was cracking the ball with depth off both wings, punished the Rublev two-handed backhand and even carved some timely drop shots seizing a one-set lead. Fritz served 70 percent and won 17 of 23 first-serve points in the opening set.
“He’s one of the best players. He get great results,” Rublev said of Fritz. “Wimbledon semifinal, great match against Alcaraz. Now the tournament after Wimbledon he’s in semifinal.
“I know he have a great level, but here it’s tough to serve against. Here there is no tennis at all. But, in general, he had unbelievable level. He have tough matches against top players, and he’s beating most of the players.”
On the fast Toronto court, Fritz was nearly flawless on serve at the start of the second set. The 6’5” American tore through 16 of his first 17 service points, stamping three love holds in a row, at the start of the second set. Fritz broke for 5-4.
The second seed’s only real stumble came when he served for the semifinal at 5-4. Despite successive aces that helped him earn match point, Fritz missed his normally reliable backhand.
Rublev saved a match point then exploited a double fault and netted backhand breaking to level the second set at 5-all.
A frustrated Fritz dropped his Head racquet to the court and screamed at his box in his only show of angst of the evening.
The Rublev forehand remains one of the biggest in the game, but the Russian’s biggest weapon betrayed him early in the tiebreaker. Rublev missed two forehands in the first three points as Fritz took a 3-0 lead.
Launching a 137 mph missile down the middle, Fritz went up 5-2. Though Rublev ripped a diagonal forehand to close to 4-5 he missed a mind-numbing forehand into net to hand the American a second match point.
This time, Fritz made no mistake cracking his 20th ace of the night to seal his 20th hard-court win of the year.
By Richard Pagliaro | Monday, August 4, 2025 Photo credit: Peter Power/Tennis Canada/National Bank Open Facebook
Popping with physicality, Alexander Zverev unleashed a series of kangaroo hops behind the baseline more than two hours into tonight’s match.
Showing spring in his steps and sting on his shots, Zverev dethroned defending National Bank Open champion Alexei Popyrin 6-7(8), 6-4, 6-3 to bounce into a historic semifinal.
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The top-seeded Zverev snapped Popyrin’s nine-match winning streak at the Canadian Open creating history for the second time in the tournament.
Zverev, who rallied to his 500th career victory on Thursday, advanced to his 75th career Tour-level semifinal, including his 21st ATP Masters 1000 final four, tonight.
The former Olympic gold-medal champion joins reigning gold-medal champion Novak Djokovic (196) as just the second active man to reach 75 career semifinals.
The 27-year-old German, who won the 2017 Montreal title, will play either 11th-seeded Karen Khachanov or 20-year-old American Alex Michelsen for a spot in the Toronto final.
A tense opening set saw each man save a break point before drama spiked in the tiebreaker.
In a topsy-turvy tiebreaker, Popyrin seized a 5-3 lead only to see Zverev reel off three points in a row for a set point at 6-5.
A diagonal forehand from the Aussie drew a backhand error for 6-all. Popyrin held a set point at 7-6, but Zverev slid a serve down the T to save it.
The top seed held a second set point at 8-7 but netted a forehand return off a second serve, erupting in a primal scream of anguish.
Popyrin crashed a 139 mph ace down the T—his eighth ace—for a second set point at 9-8. Popyrin showed his guts attacking behind a forehand down the line then tapped a half volley that kissed the top of the tape and dribbled over to end a tight first set.
Popyrin raised both hands in apology, taking a one set lead after 1 hour, 11 minutes of play.
Resetting, Zverev held to start the second set then gained the first break of the night on a series of miscues from the Aussie. Popyrin sailed a forehand and double faulted deep ceding the break and a 2-0 second-set lead.
Zverev stamped his second love hold of the match extending his advantage to 3-0.
Seemingly in control of the set at 4-2, Zverev’s forehand failed him in the seventh game. The German decelerated slapping a forehand into the net—his third forehand error of the game—gifting the champion the love break as Popyrin crept closer at 3-4.
Stepping into the court and putting his body weight behind the ball, Zverev lashed a forehand down the line for triple set point in the 10th game. Though Popyrin saved the first set point, he tried the serve-and-volley and pushed a makeable forehand volley wide as Zverev snatched the second set with his second break after one hour, 58 minutes.
An increasingly weary-looking Popyrin opened the court with a wide serve but pushed his favored forehand wide to face a break point. Popyrin sailed a backhand wide ending a sloppy game to gift Zverev the break and a 2-0 lead in the final set.
A pumped-up Zverev pulled off the shot of the match—a superb full-stretch flying forehand volley winner to help him hold at 15 for a 3-0 lead.
Serving with command in the final set, Zverev served 70 percent and won 15 of 15 first-serve points. Impressive, especially considering one idiot in the crowd was screaming in distraction as the German’s ball toss went up in the final game. The disruptor elicited a double-fault, but credit Toronto security for finding the unruly fan and escorting him out of the stadium.
Zverev closed in two hours, 42 minutes pausing to turn and wave bye bye to the second of the stadium where the disruptor was sitting.
By Richard Pagliaro | Sunday, August 3, 2025 Photo credit: Tennis TV
Sounds of squealing sneakers reverberated around the Toronto court.
Alex de Minaur barely spoke a word during the decisive set today, but his Asic shoes wouldn’t shut up.
Bursting off the baseline with deep desire, de Minaur ran down drop shots to score the key break fending off Frances Tiafoe 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 to roar into his seventh quarterfinal of the season at the ATP 1000 National Bank Open.
A week after de Minaur denied three championship points to out-duel Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the Washington, DC final and capture his 10th career title, he lived up to his “Speed Demon” nickname scoring his seventh straight win.
“There’s a lot of quick movers out there. Maybe this year I haven’t had to rely on it as much because I’m focusing on trying to be a little bit more aggressive,” de Minaur said. “Course, you know, there’s still plenty of hours that have been put on in the gym, off the court, to make sure that my footwork and speed is what it is.
“I like to think that it helps in defending and retrieving, but also it helps me in taking time away from my opponents. I’m using it to my advantage to get to the net very quickly and kind of anticipate the next shot. So it’s not only for defensive use, I’m also trying to use it in an aggressive nature as well.”
It’s a historic victory for de Minaur—his 212th career hard court triumph equals two-time US Open champion Patrick Rafter for second on the Australian all-time list in the Open Era trailing only his Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt, who was 372-158 lifetime on his favored hard courts.
The ninth-seeded de Minaur will face either world No. 7 Ben Shelton or 17th-ranked Wimbledon quarterfinalist Flavio Cobolli for a semifinal spot. De Minaur is 2-0 lifetime against the 23-year-old Cobolli and has yet to face Shelton in a pro match.
Bouncing on his toes behind the baseline, de Minaur exuded more energy, clarity and consistency at the start today.
Tiafoe dragged a forehand wide and scattered a slice backhand gifting the Aussie the opening-game break.
A sound de Minaur rolled through 12 of the next 15 points, bleeding forehand errors from Tiafoe for a second straight break then holding at 15 to lead 4-0 after just 16 minutes of play.
Though Tiafoe earned a couple of break points in the sixth game, he couldn’t find the court on either break point. De Minaur drew a pair of forehand return errors extending his lead to 5-1.
The ninth-seeded Aussie served out the 37-minute opener at 15.
Elevating his first serve percentage from 39 percent to 59 percent in the second set, Tiafoe played more proactive tennis in the second.
The pair combined for four consecutive breaks to start the second set.
At 4-all, 30-40, Tiafoe fought off a break point then dug in to win the longest game of the set edging ahead 5-4.
Though de Minaur went up 30-love in the ensuing game, Tiafoe would not be denied. Ripping a forehand down the line and attacking at the right time, Tiafoe earned set point. The man from Maryland rattled out a framed forehand from his opponent snatching the second set with a raised fist.
After about a seven-minute bathroom break, Tiafoe returned revitalized in tearing through 12 of the first 14 points on serve to stake a 3-2 lead.
Tiafoe held double break point for a potential 4-2 lead, but de Minaur saved the first forcing a forehand miss. On the second break point, the pair produced one of the most dazzling points of the day. A 15-shot rally saw the Aussie nudge a half volley that Tiafoe ran down and poked a pass crosscourt. De Minaur recovered a ball behind him and hit a forehand into the open court to save the second break point. An ace down the T helped de Minaur level at 3-all.
Tiafoe was snapping the slice serve down the T as he stamped his second love hold of the set for 4-3.
Deadlocked at 4-all, Tiafoe showed the good, the bad and the downright crazy of his game. The good was three aces in the game. The bad was Foe’s stubborn insistence on continuing to play the drop shot against one of the sport’s fastest players. And the crazy was even after seeing de Minaur make those running retrievals and seeing the Aussie was hovering right near the baseline, Tiafoe kept indulging his drop-shot fixation.
At one point, de Minaur careened corner to corner like an ambulance driver answering a 911 call as he hit a full-stretch forehand followed by a running backhand then read the dropper and scrambled forward to retrieve prompting Tiafoe to push a half volley into net.
“It’s kind of, it’s part of my DNA, right, never to let a point go, no matter what position in the rally I’m in,” de Minaur said. “Yeah, today was a crucial example of what it can mean if you make that extra point, right.
It was a huge moment, it gave me a break point, and even though I wasn’t able to convert it, it really did send a message that I wanted that game. Yeah, I mean, I don’t have the biggest weapons out here, but one thing I can rely on is my legs.”
You’d think after seeing the Speed Demon pull off that spectacular series of running gets, the last shot on Tiafoe’s mind would be the dropper.
Well think again.
Inexplicably, a couple of points later, Tiafoe tapped a dropper that sat up, de Minaur easily ran it down and shoveled a forehand pass breaking for 5-4.
Still, de Minaur needed a bit of luck to end it hitting a net-cord winner for 30-5. The slider serve brought the Aussie match point and de Minaur closed on another forehand error from Tiafoe, whose forehand failed him at the wrong times today.
A terrific battle that included chair umpire Mo Lahyani advising a parent in the crowd to “please give that baby some love” in response to a crying child ended with a well-earned ovation after two hours, 24 minutes. De Minaur raised his record to 37-13 on the season, he is No. 3 on the Tour for most victories in 2025.
“Tunnel vision,” de Minaur wrote on the court-side camera, summing up another gritty win for the 2025 ATP hard-court win leader.
By Richard Pagliaro | Friday, August 1, 2025 Mubadala Citi DC Open Facebook
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina slammed ATP scheduling in Toronto.
Dan Evans delivered a stinging wake-up call to the Spaniard in response.
On his Instagram Stories, Evans called out Davidovich Fokina’s “pathetic” griping.
Reposting the Spaniard’s criticism, Evans posted “Wake up and play. The world wakes up and works 9-5 even 8-6. Pathetic.”
The Briton’s blunt response came after Davidovich Fokina, who suffered a gut-wrenching loss to Alex de Minaur in last week’s Washington, DC final, ripped the ATP scheduling his National Bank Open match for 11 a.m.
“Every match starts at 12:30 p.m., except ours, which has been scheduled for 11 a.m.,” Davidovich Fokina wrote on Instagram Stories. “We’re staying one hour away from the club, which means that we have to wake up extremely early to arrive in good conditions. We asked for a change, but the answer was that everything was already sold: tickets, TV rights, etc. Once again, it’s clear that the players are not taken into consideration. The ATP always promises they’ll fix things, but nothing ever changes.”
By Richard Pagliaro | Sunday, July 27, 2025 Photo credit: Hannah Peters/Getty
Alexander Zverev tuned up for the North American summer hard-court season training with coach Toni Nadal at the Rafa Nadal Academy in Mallorca.
Olympic gold-medal champion Zverev said he’d like to work with Toni Nadal on a more regular basis, but a prospective partnership depends on Uncle Toni’s schedule.
Speaking to the media in Toronto where he is top seed at this week’s National Bank Open, Zverev said “I’m trying to convince” Toni Nadal to join his coaching team.
“I mean, he spent quite a lot of time with me actually as well, so I’m very thankful for that,” Zverev told the media in Toronto. “I mean, the time in Mallorca was amazing. I spent about 10 days there, and worked really hard and enjoyed it as well. I think Toni enjoyed it probably as well.
“I’m trying to convince him (smiling) to do more weeks with me, and we’ll see how it goes, but he’s a very busy man. Also he has a lot of dates that he already committed to this year, so I’m not sure how much of him you’ll see this year, because he gave his word to a lot of events and a lot of speeches already. But we’re talking about what a potential partnership could look like, for sure, and, yeah, I can give you an update probably in a few weeks time when we know more. But, yeah, I enjoyed my time there, that’s for sure.”
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In addition to working with Toni Nadal, Zverev said he gained “great insight” from Rafael Nadal on his game. King of Clay Rafa Nadal shared with Zverev what it was like for him to face the German.
“Yeah, they definitely spent a lot of hours talking to me, and they gave me some great insight. Rafa gave me some great insight of what it actually is like to play against me, because he saw me as a player, he saw me now as a spectator as well,” Zverev said. “It was very helpful, and again, we spent hours and hours talking, sometimes until past midnight in some dinners and stuff like that. So it was great to be there.”
Earlier this month, Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech completed a five-set win over Zverev in the Wimbledon first round. Rinderknech won 44 of 55 trips to net and denied all nine break points he faced.
Afterward, Zverev said the prestigious Centre Court lawn felt like a deep hole he couldn’t escape.
Six months after his surge to the Australian Open final, Zverev suffered his second career Wimbledon first-round exit and opened up on the malaise he’s feeling.
“I would say more mental, probably. It’s funny, I feel very alone out there at times,” Zverev said. “I struggle mentally. I’ve been saying that since after the Australian Open. Yeah, just don’t know. I’m trying to find ways, trying to find ways to kind of get out of this hole. I keep kind of finding myself back in it in a way.
“Yeah, I don’t know. I feel, generally speaking, quite alone in life at the moment, which is a feeling that is not very nice.”
In his parting presser at SW19, Zverev said it’s possible he could hire a new coach and conceded he’s out of answers on court.
“Possibly,” Zverev said when asked about a new coach. “As I said, yeah, it’s a different feeling right now for me. I can’t speak for the moment. But I think I’ll have answers by Canada.”
While Zverev has worked with high-profile coaches in the past—including David Ferrer, who helped guide him to the US Open final and former No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero, who has been exceptionally successful coaching Carlos Alcaraz—he continues to return to the familiarity of his father, Alexander Zverev, Sr., as coach.
Toni Nadal, known as a savvy and tough taskmaster, spent some time working with Felix Auger-Aliassime after stepping down as Rafa Nadal’s official coach. Zverev said his goal is to maximize his game to try to win Grand Slams.
“I mean, I think at this stage for me it’s about winning, and trying to maximize what I have, and trying to maximize what I can become,” Zverev said. “Again, I think my team, but also Toni are exceptional in that, in maximizing what a player has. Of course, he was with Rafa before, which I’m never going to compare myself to Rafa, but if he can maximize what I have, and he can maximize the potential that I have, I’m sure that I can have a lot more success in my career.”
World No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz will be Toronto top seed.
By Richard Pagliaro | @TennisNow | Sunday, July 20, 2025
Photo credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty
A quartet of talented contenders have stepped out of Toronto.
World No. 1 Jannik Sinner, world No.2 Carlos Alcaraz, Grand Slam king Novak Djokovic and Indian Wells champion Jack Draper have all withdrawn from this month's National Bank Open in Toronto.
Sinner dethroned two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz to win his maiden Wimbledon crown earlier this month.
Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic have been forced to withdraw from the 2025 National Bank Open in Toronto as they recover following Wimbledon. Jack Draper has also withdrawn due to injury.
News of Alcaraz's withdrawal, reported by the Spanish outlet Marca, came after the tournament announced that Sinner, Djokovic and Draper had pulled out.
Draper, who picked up an arm injury after Wimbledon, will also miss Cincinnati.
There has been talk that the ATP's committment to making Masters 1000 two-week events has dampened the enthusiasm of some of the tour's top players to play both. What formerly required a two-week commitment now requires over three weeks.
Home players should enjoy strong support in Toronto, however.
Three Canadians are ranked inside the ATP's Top 40 and earned direct entry into the main draw.
Montreal’s Félix Auger-Aliassime, currently representing Canada in Hopman Cup, will be making his eighth appearance at the NBO. The 28th-ranked Auger-Aliassime reached the 2022 quarterfinals.
No. 30 Denis Shapovalov, who won his second title of 2025 in Los Cabos last night, will also make his eighth appearance at the event. Shapovalov famously upset Rafael Nadal en route to the 2017 semifinals.
Big serving Montreal native Gabriel Diallo will play the Canadian Masters for the fourth time.
“Canada, I can't wait to be back at home and playing in front of all of you at this year's National Bank Open presented by Rogers,” said Félix Auger-Aliassime. "The atmosphere and fans in Toronto are always amazing, and it's not something I take for granted.
"I'm going to give it everything I've got, and I hope that we can go on a deep run together!”
