Hiram Moreno
The ATP National Bank Open 2022also known as the Canadian Masters, is the sixth ATP 1000 tournament of the tennis season and will bring together some of the best men’s tennis players in Montreal, Quebec, from August 8 to August 14. The tournament aims to deliver good tennis exhibitions ahead of the 2022 US Open, which begins at the end of this month.
Daniil Medvedev, reigning champion of the competition, will be looking to defend his crown. However, he won’t have an easy road due to the tough competition he’ll be facing, and at JefeBet we review who could be the ones who could snatch the title from him.
Picks and predictions for the 2022 National Bank Open – ATP Tour
Where: IGA Stadium, Montreal, Canada
When: August 8–August 14, 2022
Favorites
Daniil Medvedev (Odds 6/1)
Medvedev will be well rested after missing Wimbledon due to the exclusion of Russian and Belarusian players by the All England Club, with his last tournament being the Mallorca ATP in June, where he lost in the quarterfinals to Roberto Bautista Agut.
While his two tournaments prior to that (Halle and ‘s-Hertogenbosch) saw him reach the final and lose it, the Russian and top seed for this competition has not fared well in ATP 1000 tournaments this season, being eliminated in the quarterfinals in Miami by Hubert Hurkacz and in the round of 32 in Indian Wells by Gael Monfils.
Rafael Nadal (Odds 8/1)
Rafael Nadal will be the second seed in this ATP 2022 National Bank Open, although we will have to see how he’s doing physically speaking after he withdrew due to injury in the semifinals at Wimbledon, which is so far his last tournament played.
The five-time champion of this tournament – last win in 2019 – has an 8-3 record in ATP 1000s this season. He has failed to win so far this season, losing in the final in Indian Wells against Taylor Fritz, in the quarterfinals in Madrid against Carlos Alcaráz and in the round of 16 in Rome against Denis Shapovalov, although he has won two of the four Grand Slams of the year (Australian Open and Roland Garros), which demonstrates that he still has a lot to provide if his health holds up.
Novak Djokovic (Odds 8/1)
The Serb, currently ranked #6 in the world, could be considered one of the favorites despite being the fifth seed in the ATP 2022 National Bank Open. He’s won the tournament four times, the most recent in 2016, and he’ll be powered up due to having triumphed at Wimbledon, the previous competition he played.
Prior to his win at Wimbledon and his elimination in the quarterfinals at Roland Garros, “Nole” won the Rome Masters title by defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas, and previously reached the semifinals in Madrid, where he lost to eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz. However, he hasn’tt reached the final in this tournament since 2016.
Sleeper Picks
Carlos Alcaraz (Odds 10/1)
Carlos Alcaraz has been the ATP Tour breakthrough in 2022, and the 19-year-old is placed as the third seed in the tournament and fourth in the world ranking after outstanding performances, demonstrating that he can compete with the best tennis players on the circuit.
The Spaniard has four titles to his name this year, including two ATP 1000 titles: one in Miami, where he beat Casper Ruud, and one in Madrid, where he beat Alexander Zverev. Alcaraz reached the final of the two tournaments he played, although he lost both (against Lorenzo Musetti in Hamburg and against Jannik Sinner in Umag).
His record this season is of an impressive 42-7, but interestingly enough, four of his losses were to Italians. If he doesn’t run into Italian opponents in this tournament, he could very well win the title.
Stefanos Tsitsipas (Odds 15/1)
Tsitsipas, #5 in the world rankings, will be the fourth seed in this ATP 2022 National Bank Open, and the Greek has been delivering some consistent results throughout the year. Out of the five ATP 1000 tournaments in which he participated, he reached the final in two of them, Rome and Monte Carlo, losing the first one to Novak Djokovic and winning the second one against Alexander Davidovich Fokina.
The Greek knows what it is to reach the final of this tournament, having reached that instance in 2018 and lost to Rafael Nadal. Although he starts as the favorite, we must remember that Tsitsipas was eliminated in the third round of Wimbledon by eventual finalist Nick Kyrgios, and his matches prior to that setback in England were too even despite being against less challenging opponents.
Dark Horse
Felix-Auger Aliassime (Odds 30/1)
Can Felix-Auger Aliassime’s home crowd cheer him enough for the Canadian to have a successful tournament? Aliassime’s best result in this competition was reaching the third round in 2019, and he will be hoping to improve on that this time around.
However, Aliassime is coming off three consecutive losses, two of them in the first round at Newport and Wimbledon and the other in Halle in the quarterfinals against Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz.
