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Ben Shelton beat Brandon Nakashima 6-3, 7-6(4) to defend his Montreal title and become the first man since Nadal to go back-to-back in Canada, while Iga Swiatek beat Elena Rybakina 6-2, 6-3 in Toronto to complete a career sweep of North America’s hard-court Masters events — both finals played on the same evening at the 2026 National Bank Open.
By Thursday night, two trophies had been lifted in two Canadian cities within hours of each other. In Montreal, Ben Shelton defended the title he won a year ago in Toronto, becoming just the fourth man this century to go back-to-back in Canada. In Toronto, Iga Swiatek dropped only five games across the entire final to complete something no active player had achieved before her: a career sweep of every major hard-court tournament North America has to offer.
Montreal / Toronto, Canada: The National Bank Open presented by Rogers has, for the first time in its modern history, been split across two host cities and two draws running in parallel — men in Montreal, women in Toronto. On finals day, both cities delivered exactly the kind of tennis their tournaments deserved.
Montreal: Shelton Denies Nakashima in an All-American First
Ben Shelton beat fellow American Brandon Nakashima 6-3, 7-6(4) at IGA Stadium in a match that was, for long stretches, as one-sided as the scoreline suggests. It was the first all-American men’s singles final at this event since Andre Agassi beat Pete Sampras in 1995, and it produced a champion who did not drop a set throughout the tournament.
Nakashima, appearing in his first career Masters 1000 final after knocking out Rafael Jodar 7-6(3), 6-4 in a tense semi-final the day before, began brightly — striking four aces to hold the opening game. Shelton solved him by the seventh. From that point, the American lefty was simply too good. He struck the ball at 230 kilometres per hour on serve, surrendered not a single break point in the entire final, and closed it out in one hour and 27 minutes. Nakashima, seeded 28th, won just 17 per cent of his return points.
ALSO READ: Swiatek wins rain-delayed clash with Svitolina; Rybakina fights back from a set down to beat Gauff
“For me to play the way that I played this week to go through this draw speaks to the work I have been putting in,” Shelton said. “It also speaks to my mental toughness, my ability to focus through everything that was going on this week.”
The victory was Shelton’s second consecutive Canadian Masters title — he won last year’s edition in Toronto — making him the fourth man this century to defend the Canada crown, joining Andy Murray (2009-10), Novak Djokovic (2011-12) and Rafael Nadal (2018-19). It is his second career ATP Masters 1000 title and moves him up to sixth in the world rankings. Along the way to the final, Shelton beat Jakub Mensik in the quarterfinals and avenged two previous defeats to Learner Tien in the semi-final with a commanding 6-2, 6-3 win, doing so without dropping a set across a tournament that had already lost Sinner, Alcaraz, Djokovic and Zverev before the draw had settled.
Toronto: Swiatek Completes a Career Sweep
At Sobeys Stadium, Iga Swiatek produced the most complete performance of her difficult 2026 season. The Polish seventh seed beat second seed Elena Rybakina 6-2, 6-3, dropping serve not once across the entire final and securing her first title of the year.
The manner of the win was as significant as the result. Swiatek broke immediately in the opening game — Rybakina double-faulting twice in a row after a botched drop-shot attempt — and never surrendered the initiative. She held throughout the first set and broke again to close it out 6-2, not facing a single break point of her own until midway through the second. Rybakina, who leads the tour in aces, found her range briefly to lead 2-1 in the second set, but Swiatek reeled off five of the final six games, breaking at 3-2 before serving out the match in a tidy 75 minutes — saving off one match point Rybakina somehow manufactured before finally converting.
Swiatek’s calm, understated approach to the week had been evident days earlier — a Tennis Majors feature on her semi-final win over Elina Svitolina was headlined “‘It’s just the semifinal of a tournament’ — Far from the fuss, Swiatek quietly builds the player she wants to be,” capturing the low-key mentality that carried her through to the title. Against Rybakina, in the 13th meeting of their rivalry, she won 100 per cent of her own service games and broke Rybakina four times.
READ MORE: Montreal Masters: Shelton demolishes Mensik in 73 minutes, Tien sinks Merida
The title is Swiatek’s 26th career trophy, her 12th at WTA 1000 level, and — according to tournament statisticians — completes a career sweep of North America’s major hard-court events at just 25 years old. It also extends a remarkable run in which the six-time Grand Slam champion has now won a significant trophy in each of the last seven seasons, despite a 2026 campaign that had not produced a single final appearance before Toronto. She is projected to move up two spots to world No. 6.
During the second set, with Rybakina fighting to stay in the match, tournament commentary noted: “Rybakina has been the comeback queen at the 2026 National Bank Open but she needs to pull some magic out of her hat now” — a reference to her run of comebacks from a set down against Osaka, Samsonova and Gauff earlier in the week. On this occasion, the magic did not arrive. Rybakina remains at No. 2 in the world.
A Tournament of Youth and Upsets
Both draws told a broader story about the state of their respective tours. In Montreal, all eight quarterfinalists were born in the 2000s — the first time that has happened at any ATP Masters 1000 event since the 2007 Paris Masters — after Sinner, Alcaraz, Djokovic and Auger-Aliassime all withdrew before the tournament and Zverev was eliminated in the second round. In Toronto, Aryna Sabalenka’s early exit opened the draw for the run that ultimately delivered Swiatek and Rybakina to the final.
The 12-day, $9.42 million men’s event in Montreal drew a record attendance of more than 309,000 spectators despite five rain-interrupted sessions. In Toronto, the $7.43 million women’s event closed with Swiatek collecting $1.09 million in prize money to Rybakina’s $565,000.
Finals results:
Montreal (Men’s): [5] Ben Shelton (USA) def. [28] Brandon Nakashima (USA) 6-3, 7-6(4) Toronto (Women’s): [7] Iga Swiatek (POL) def. [2] Elena Rybakina (KAZ) 6-2, 6-3
Doubles champions: Montreal: Rafael Matos / Orlando Luz (BRA) def. Mate Pavić / Marcelo Arévalo Toronto: Kateřina Siniaková / Shuai Zhang def. Sara Errani / Nicole Melichar-Martinez 6-3, 6-4
Shelton’s title: 2nd career Masters 1000 title | Back-to-back Canada champion (4th man this century, joining Murray, Djokovic, Nadal) Swiatek’s title: 12th WTA 1000 title | 26th career title | First title of 2026
Venues: IGA Stadium, Montreal | Sobeys Stadium, Toronto Dates: August 2–13, 2026
