The Canadian Open has been around since 1881, but today we’re going to focus on what’s happened in the Open Era, that is, since 1968. The 2024 edition will be played between this Tuesday, August 6th and next Sunday, August 12th, with Jannik Sinner as the defending champion. We’ll have many important absences such as Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic or Rafael Nadal due to the proximity to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
That’s why the Italian has a good chance of defending the trophy he won last year, taking home the first Masters 1000 of his career. If he does, he would join an exclusive group of players who have won the Canadian Open twice in a row. He would be only the seventh tennis player to do so in the Open Era.
The first was Ivan Lendl, who has the distinction of being the only one to have won it twice and the only one to have won the trophy three times in a row. The Czech-American won in 1980, beating Bjorn Borg in the final (4-6, 5-4 ret.) and in 1981 defeating Eliot Teltscher in the title match (6-3, 6-2). He added one more in 1983 but it was not until 1987 that he won again.
That year he beat Stefan Edberg (6-4, 7-6(2)), in 1988 he beat Kevin Curren (7-6(10), 6-2) and in 1989 he beat John McEnroe (6-1, 6-3), lifting his sixth title in Canada, a historic record for the tournament. He has also lost three finals (1982, 1985 and 1992), totaling nine finals, which also makes him the tennis player who has reached this stage the most times.
The next to successfully defend his title in the North American country was Andre Agassi. The winner of seven Grand Slam trophies was able to do so in 1994, after beating Australian Jason Stoltenberg in the final (6-4, 6-4) and in 1995 against his historic rival, Pete Sampras, having to come back from a set down (3-6, 6-2, 6-3).
From then on, there was a void of doubles due to the alternation of winners for several years, until Andy Murray became the third player to achieve it. He did so after beating Juan Martin del Potro after two very close first sets in 2009 (6-7(4), 7-6(3), 6-1) and Roger Federer in 2010 (7-5, 7-5).
Novak Djokovic also had to be on the list. The man of (almost) all records triumphed twice in Canada in 2011, beating Mardy Fish in the final 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 and crushing Richard Gasquet in the 2012 final 6-3, 6-2. The Serb also won the title in 2007 and 2016 and only lost one decisive match on Canadian soil, in 2015 against Murray himself.
The last to achieve this feat was Rafael Nadal. The Canadian Open is the tournament that the Spaniard has won the most times outside the clay court season. He has done it five times but it was only thanks to the last two that he achieved the double. In 2018 he beat Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final 6-2, 7-6(4) and in 2019 he did the same by beating Daniil Medvedev (6-3, 6-0).
Will Jannik Sinner be able to join this select club in a few days? The Italian will be the big favourite with the absence of Alcaraz and Djokovic, and will have Medvedev and Alexander Zverev as his biggest rivals to try to stop him. The world number 1 has the chance to do so after having won last year after easily beating Alex de Minaur in the final by 6-4 and 6-1.
