History…  Prior to 2011 the Men and Women events of the Canada Open were held in separate weeks but since they are in the same with alternating cities each year without men and women falling into same place as a joint event

Since 2000, Serena Williams has won the vent 3 times, but hasn’t since 2013. Bianca Andreescu is the defending champion after a short final against Serena in which after 4 games the American was forced to retire because of upper back injury.

 

Favourites/Top Seeds/Dark Horses….

Although we are missing world no.1 and 2 in the face of Barty and Osaka the tournament offers lot of great matchups early on and plenty of betting opportunities for everyone

Top Half

World No.3 and top seed Aryna Sabalenka has one of the worst draws ever in my opinion. The first seed hasn’t done her favors that’s for sure.

Top 8 of the 16 seeds of the event receive R1 bye, but even with that she is on course to face either Stephens or Yastremska in R2 with possibly Keys or Badosa in R3 abd then projected he fellow Belarussian Azarenka in the QF.

Sabalenka lost to Vekic in the R3 in Tokyo Olympics as a -550 favorite, but the humid and hot conditions definitely played its role. Aryna hasn’t been passed the 3^rd round in Canada with only a R3 and R1 to her credit in only 2 appearances. She has a great 52-17 w/l record in Last 12 months and is under 300 points to overtake Naomi Osaka as No.2 in the world. With the Japanese missing the competition and losing 190 points and Aryna nothing to defend she has a good path to cut the lead and why not overtaking her here altogether with a Final. But as mentioned already her road is very slippery with quality opposition all the way from first to last match.

Paula Badosa is the dark horse selection to cause some havoc despite the bad draw. She will receive good odds against both Keys and if it happens, against Sabalenka as well. The Spaniard has ben trending in the right direction whole year with her ranking moving from mid-60’s from the beginning of the year to no.29 mostly because of her good results on clay, but she showed grit deispatching Swiatek in Tokyo Olympics but the heat was just too much to handle and she had to retire while a set down to Vondrousova in the QF.   She has only 6-4 record on hard courts this year but it’s with +31.7% ROI so she is not afraid to win as heavy underdog.

Madison Keys lost the final to Simona Halep here but in 2016 and has played only once since – in 2019 a R1 loss to Vekic. And is currently in questionable form losing to Zhang in San Jose last week in R1

Maria Sakkari hasn’t won in Canada dropping 2 decisions in 2018 and 2019 while her opponent Marie Bouzkova ran through the draw 2 years ago, from the qualies to the Semis, where she was stopped by Serena Williams, so interesting value bet comes up for the Czech here in the hope of another magic run.

Victoria Azarenka hasn’t played since losint the 2^nd round in Wimbledon to Sorana Cirstea. She has a rich history in Canada Open playing the event 9 times but hasn’t managed to duplicate the 3 SF’s she was able to achieve in 2008,2010 and 2011 making it into the QF only once since in 2014.

Karolina Pliskova who is the 4^th seed of the event and the highest projected one for Sabalenka to meet in the Semis was mired in a bad losing streaks for almost the whole first part of the season. She bounced back with a final in Wimbledon after failing to win 1 match from the 2 tune up tournaments on Grass so it was unexpected to see her there. Despite her height, serve and heavy game she is just 9-7 on hard courts this year with winning only twice 3 consecutive matches on this surface – in Aussie Open in the beginning of the year and in the Tokyo Olympics just 2 weeks ago.

Elena Rybakina missed on winning a medal in Tokyo in very close fashion.  She lost a close encounter to eventual winner Bencic in the SF after leading with a break in 3^rd set and then was beaten from set up by Svitolina in the bronze medal game.  After losing a close match to Collins in San Jose in the QF last week she might be ready to go on a streak here. She hasn’t shwn her potential on hard courts yet though so until she makes some sort of a splash against higher ranked opponent we still have to wait and observe her form.

Garbine Muguruza returns in Canada for the first time since 2017,s he hasn’t had good amount of success with 3-3 record from only 3 appearances. Back in top 10 and nothing to defend she has the game to make life harder to any given player but has failed under the pressure and unforced errors that is almost impossible to predict her next step.

Bottom Half         

This part of the draw has lot of uncertainties mainly because we see the return of great players but after lengthy absences caused by injuries

Bianca Andreescu is the 2^nd seed and the home country hope for another run like in 2019 when she took the title in Toronto with 3 underdog wins. She is however very fragile and barely played this year with only 12-8 record on the year and losing 3 of the last 4 matches on Clay and Grass. This is her first match since Wimbledon, so a good month without playing competitive matches. In the past she has shown she can quickly get back to form but still a huge question mark about her and performance.

6^th seed Simona Halep received a wildcard and will return after she rolled her ankle in R2 in Rome tournament all the way back in May. This injury caused her to miss the whole clay and grass season and it will be interesting to see how she fares here after 3 month absence. She has amazing 25-6 w/l record in this event with 2 titles and lost final, but her draw isn’t that easy starting off with probably in-form Danielle Collins in R2.

Collins came to San Jose on the back of the title on clay in Palermo. Changing surfaces and continents didn’t slow her down and despite she didn’t won against someone higher ranked in Palermo she continued her row dispatching Stephens and Rybakina for a final appearance. With 14-5 record on hard courts this year she is a dark horse to put a dent into Halep’s return as early as R2.

Fresh off her Bronze medal winning performance in Tokyo Olympics, Elina Svitolina returns to a place where she has had good number of great memories.  Winning the title in 2017 with onl1 dropped set and a SF and QF to her credit and 12-4 record with +25.7% ROI she enjoys the conditions and is expected to go deep yet again.

Petra Kvitova is mired in a slump that started from the tune up tournaments to Wimbledon and iit still continues while dropping decisions to opponents close to nobody would have expected. Losing 3 of the last 4 matches while being a -600, -700 and -500 favorite is really hard to explain. Huge question mark coming here as well and I don’t see a reason while we shouldn’t continue backing the opponent against her without acknowledging the underdog stamp.

Tomljanovic could offer good value in R2 against her

Bets

Paula Badosa to win quarter is worth a shot at +1000, yes I know, she falls into Sabalenka’s quarter and would be really difficult but that’s where the value is in my opinion. Elina Svitolina to win 3^rd quarter at +350 and Danielle Collins the 4^th at +700 looks too good to pass

Muguruza to reach the final at +500 is a good one as well with the other finalist be Collins or Svitolina.