Canada’s Andreescu and Fernandez to compete at home at National Bank Open

Bianca Andreescu’s comeback story will continue on familiar ground when she competes at the upcoming National Bank Open at Sobeys Stadium in Toronto.

The Mississauga, Ont., native was in attendance Thursday as Tennis Canada announced the roster for this year’s WTA 1000 tennis tournament.

Andreescu won the event in 2019 in a standout year that also saw her win the US Open and achieve a world No. 4 ranking.

Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., a 2021 US Open runner-up, will be the 15th seed in the tournament.

The competition will be tough as 41 of the top 43 players will take part in the event, headlined by world No. 1 Iga Swiatek, Naomi Osaka, Toronto-born 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu and Serena Williams.

The tournament, which will be played August 5-14, is running at full capacity for the first time since 2019 after being canceled in 2020, and is running with restrictions in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Men’s Tournament in Montreal

After a 15-month layoff that began in late 2019 due to a left knee injury and a battle with COVID-19 in 2021, Andreescu opted to take a ‘mental break’ from tennis at the end from last year.

Ahead of a recent Wimbledon second-round exit, she advanced to the Bad Homburg Open final before falling to France’s Caroline Garcia. It was the farthest she had gone in a tournament since the 2021 Miami Open, where she fell to then-world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty.

The men’s tournament will take place in Montreal, where Canadians Denis Shapovalov and Félix Auger-Aliassime will be targeting a potential home win.

Daniil Medvedev of Russia is the top seed in the men’s draw, followed by Germany’s Alexander Zverev at No. 2 and Spain’s Rafael Nadal at No. 3.

Russian and Belarusian players, banned from playing Wimbledon in response to the invasion of Ukraine, will be allowed to compete in the National Bank Open, Tennis Canada announced in a statement in April.

Nadal, who has 22 Grand Slam men’s singles titles to his name, is a five-time winner of the Canadian event.