WTA Canadian Open draw – Iga Swiatek and Emma Raducanu learn fates as Coco Gauff awaits faces dangerous opener

The seventh WTA 1000 tournament of the season is due to get underway in Montreal, with seven of the world’s top 10 singles players in action.

At last year’s tournament – held in Toronto – Jessica Pegula defeated Amanda Anisimova 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 to claim her third WTA 1000 tournament and her sixth WTA singles title overall.

The event will take place from July 27 – August 7 at Montreal’s IGA Stadium.

Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek lead the way as the top two seeds, with world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka having withdrawn before the draw was made.

Other top names include defending champion Pegula, Mirra Andreeva, Anisimova, Madison Keys, and Emma Raducanu.

Wildcards include 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu and 18-year-old Canadian Victoria Mboko.

World No 2 Coco Gauff leads the top section of the draw, and will likely face former world No 7 Danielle Collins in her opening match, should the American get past a qualifier. The two have never faced each other.

In the third round, the one-time Grand Slam champion is projected to face 29^th seed Olga Daniolvic, and either Sofia Kenin or Diana Shnaider in the last 16.

Should Gauff make the quarter-finals, she is projected to face seventh seed Jasmine Paolini, who has won both of their last two meetings – albeit on clay.

Other possibilities include 12^th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova, 18^th seed Beatriz Haddad Maia, and 26^th seed Ashlyn Krueger.

Fourth seed Mirra Andreeva headlines the bottom section of Gauff’s half, with the Russian being projected to face off against American Emma Navarro in the quarter-finals.

Iga Swiatek leads the bottom half of the women’s singles draw, also benefitting from a bye in the first round as a result of being seeded.

The newly-crowned Wimbledon champion will open against a qualifier or Yulia Putintseva – the very player who last beat Swiatek at SW19.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova is projected to face the former world No 1 in the third round, with either 16^th seed Clara Tauson or 21^st seed Magdalena Frech likely waiting afterwards.

Australian Open champion Madison Keys has landed in Swiatek’s quarter of the draw, and may clash with the six-time Grand Slam champion in the last eight, should the American get past the other seeds in her section – such as Karolina Muchova and Belinda Bencic.

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Raducanu, who will return to the British No 1 spot on Monday thanks to her Washington run, is in the Pole’s half and begins her Montreal campaign against Elena-Gabriela Ruse.

32^nd seed Peyton Stearns, who benefits from a bye, would be the 2021 US Open champion’s next opponent, with a clash against Amanda Anisimova projected in the third round – a matchup which the Brit likes, having convincingly won both of their meetings this season.

Ukrainian Elina Svitolina and Elise Mertens are the other two seeds in Raducanu’s eighth, being potential fourth-round hurdles.

Defending champion Pegula is the top seed within the Brit’s quarter, with 13^th seed Liudmila Samsonova, 22^nd seed Jelena Ostapenko, and 25^th seed Magda Linette other potential quarter-final options.

Raducanu has never won a singles match at the Canadian Open, having last competed there in 2022.

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