Pedigree is the Canadian Open's first calling card. First contested in 1881, it ranks among the oldest tennis championships in the world — older than three of the four majors — and now sits as a Masters 1000 and WTA 1000 anchor of the North American hardcourt summer. Its defining quirk is geographic: the men's and women's draws swap host cities each year between Montreal and Toronto, so the event runs two home crowds and no single permanent cathedral.
That dual identity shapes its character. There's no clay patience of Roland-Garros here and no grass of Wimbledon — this is fast, hot, mid-summer hardcourt tennis. Slotted between Washington and the Cincinnati Open, it forms the spine of the run that funnels the tour toward the US Open, where players are recalibrating to the surface and conditions of New York under best-of-three pressure.
The recent men's roll call reflects the changing of the guard. Jannik Sinner collected the title in 2023, beating Alex De Minaur 6-4, 6-1 in the final — a one-sided baseline clinic on the way to his eventual ascent to No. 1. In 2025, Ben Shelton broke through for his maiden Masters 1000 crown, edging Karen Khachanov across a final settled in two tiebreaks, 6-7, 6-4, 7-6 — a fitting result for an event that rewards serve-first power on quick courts.
The current beat is the calendar itself: the tournament now stretches across nearly two weeks, part of the tour-wide expansion of the marquee Masters events into a longer, larger draw. The 2026 edition runs August 2-13, opening the decisive North American hardcourt stretch before the season's final major.