MONTREAL (AP) — World No. 1 Jannik Sinner and 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic have withdrawn from the National Bank Open.
Tennis Canada announced Friday that neither will compete in Montreal after both players were included on the entry list for the ATP Masters 1000 tournament beginning Aug. 1.
Seven-time Grand Slam champion Carlos Alcaraz was not included on the player list as he continues to recover from a right wrist injury that forced him to miss the French Open and Wimbledon.
“After carefully considering all the factors together with my team, we have made the difficult decision to withdraw from Montreal,” said Sinner, who won at Wimbledon earlier this month.
“It is never easy to miss such an important event, but we believe this is the right decision to prioritize my health. I’m disappointed not to be there, but I look forward to returning to Montreal in the future.”
French Open champion and Wimbledon runner-up Alexander Zverev will be the tournament’s top seed.
Montreal’s Félix Auger-Aliassime will be seeded second, making him the highest-seeded Canadian in the tournament’s history.
Sinner, Djokovic and Alcaraz — the three biggest draws in men’s tennis — also missed last year’s event in Toronto, when the 12-day tournament began just two weeks after Wimbledon.
Tournament officials had expected fewer withdrawals this year, with the event starting three weeks after the Wimbledon finals, and expressed their frustration in a press release.
“We are obviously very disappointed that Jannik and Novak won’t be joining us in Montréal this year, especially after they also withdrew from last year’s tournament in Toronto. We respect their decisions and understand that, with such a demanding schedule, players’ health must remain the priority,” NBO tournament director Valérie Tétreault said in a statement.
“That said, we believe the frequency of these last-minute withdrawals in the last few years raises a broader issue for our sport. Masters 1000 events are among the flagship tournaments on the tour, and fans rightfully expect to see the world’s best compete.”
The 24-year-old Sinner and the 39-year-old Djokovic could return to action at the Cincinnati Open, with main draw play beginning the day the National Bank Open ends, before the U.S. Open in late August.
AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
Novak Djokovic of Serbia plays a volley against Roman Saffiullin of Russia in their fourth round men's singles match at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Sunday, July 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)
Jannik Sinner of Italy plays a return to Alexander Zverev of Germany during the men's singles final at Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Sunday, July 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
ARCACHON, France (AP) — Massive forest fires forced the evacuation of some 200,000 people in southwestern France and central Spain on Friday, with residents fleeing towns near Madrid and Bordeaux as the flames raged out of control.
Firefighters and authorities in both European countries were caught off guard by the virulence of the fires, which were fueled by high temperatures and the long-term effects of climate change. Firefighters in Spain admitted the fires were so fast and violent that they could not be tackled head on. Some people even fled by boat when flames swept through the touristic area on France’s Atlantic coast.
Some 141,000 fled homes in the Gironde and Landes departments in France, the French interior ministry said. In central Spain, 60,000 were forced from their homes, the Spanish interior ministry said.
Dozens of French firefighters were injured, authorities said, but no deaths were reported in either country despite the scenes of panic as townsfolk fled by car and police went door to door to tell people to leave as large plumes of smoke rose from the neighboring woodlands.
France’s Interior minister Laurent Nunez said that the large wildfire that ravaged large swaths of land in southwestern France in now heading toward the city of Bordeaux.
Speaking to French TV channel Tf1, Nunez said the wildfire that earlier in the day forced the evacuation of the Cap Ferret peninsula has swept across 140 square kilometers, with 110,000 people fleeing their homes in the Gironde region.
“We learned in the middle of the afternoon that, following the wind shift, it had become a large, self-sustaining fire that is extremely difficult to bring under control,” Nunez said. “It is now moving east, toward the Bordeaux metropolitan area. We are going to reorganize our response so we can fight it from the ground and prevent it from advancing toward Bordeaux.”
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron has asked the Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu to activate the government’s crisis response unit, and has instructed the armed forces to mobilize in order to provide the maximum possible reinforcement to the civilian emergency services.
Asked whether Bordeaux is under threat, Nunez said: “For the time being, no. We will, of course, do everything we can to protect it using ground resources, including requisitioned military assets and our firefighters.”
The most devastating French blaze started on Wednesday near Cap Ferret peninsula on France’s Atlantic coast, located 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Bordeaux. Local authorities in the Gironde department said 53 homes and a campsite were destroyed, adding that 42 firefighters were injured. Around 1,500 people who fled the peninsula arrived by sea in the city of Arcachon, some aboard small water taxis and others on larger boats.
“It’s quite impressive and even frightening," said Laurent Moretti, a resident in the town of Arès. “An evacuation on this scale has never happened before. All we really hope is that the firefighters can quickly get it under control.”
A separate wildfire broke out in Landes, causing 31,000 evacuations. Authorities believe the cause of both of fires in France were accidental.
More than 20,000 people had already been evacuated from towns and vacation resorts on Thursday, but that number exploded on Friday.
Both France and Spain asked fellow European Union members for help.
Macron said France will receive EU reinforcements including two Croatian Canadair firefighting aircraft, two Portuguese Air Tractor aircraft, and two heavy-lift Black Hawk helicopters from the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said that Italy and Greece are each sending two Canadair water-dumping airplanes, while a thousand Spanish soldiers helped firefighting efforts.
In Spain, the government declared a national emergency for wildfires for the first time as the blazes in Madrid and the nearby province of Ávila prompted the evacuation of some 60,000 people from towns west of the capital.
The fires are being fanned by a heat wave with temperatures expected to top 39 degrees Celsius (102 Fahrenheit) in parts of Spain.
Two major fires near Madrid merged into one single blaze that had quickly charred 30 square kilometers (11.5 square miles) by Friday afternoon. Regional President Isabel Díaz-Ayuso called it the worst in Madrid's history.
Francisco Martín, the central government representative for the region of Madrid, said that another 20,000 people had been ordered to shelter at home in towns west of the capital. Martín said more evacuations could be coming and that the priority now was to protect the town of San Lorenzo, the home of the Escorial, Philip II's 16th-century royal palace and monastery.
Meanwhile, a blaze in Ávila, less than two hours northwest of Madrid, had consumed 90 square kilometers (34 square miles). Spain's Civil Guard arrested one man and is investigating another for allegedly having used heavy machinery in an area where it was prohibited for fire risk. Police believe a spark ignited the fire on Thursday.
“All around the town was smoke and fire, I was scared. Everything was fire and smoke, people were nervous,” 33-year-old Joaquin Espinosa told The Associated Press before he and his neighbors were evacuated from the village of Chapinería.
In one week, Spain has had the worst fires on record for both the regions of Castilla La Mancha and Madrid.
Firefighters were still trying to extinguish Spain’s second-largest ever fire in the Guadalajara province of Castilla La Mancha after it had destroyed some 320 square kilometers (120 square miles) over the last week. Thirteen people were also killed in a fire in southern Spain earlier this month, the deadliest fire in recent memory for Spain.
Spanish Minister for the Ecological Transition Sara Aagesen said that Spain has seen 1,140 square kilometers (440 square miles) already burned this year, more than five times the burned terrain it had through the first half of 2025.
“I want to send a message of support to the thousands of families who face a difficult night ahead,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who will visit the fire-ravaged area on Saturday, wrote on X.
Spain has experienced record temperatures in recent summers and forest fires of increasing violence.
Wildfire analyst Raúl Quílez said that besides the impact of climate change, Spain’s rural areas have become more exposed to fires with the abandonment of farmlands that traditionally provided buffer zones around villages. Now, he said, trees and undergrowth often reach right to homes, putting them in harm’s way.
"That makes a perfect cocktail for this type of fires,” Quílez told the AP by phone from Valencia, where he works as an analyst for regional firefighters.
Alicia León in Chapinería, Spain, contributed to this story. Petrequin reported from Paris. Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain.
A seaplane drops water onto the fire as a wildfire advances near La Adrada, Ávila province, Spain, Friday, July 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
A seaplane drops water onto the fire as a wildfire advances near La Adrada, Ávila province, Spain, Friday, July 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Smoke and flames rise as a wildfire advances near La Adrada, Ávila province, Spain, Friday, July 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
People leave the Ares region during wildfires, western France, Friday July 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Caroline Blumberg)
A water bomber drops water while fighting wildfires In Ares, western France, Friday July 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Caroline Blumberg)
Smoke and flames rise as a wildfire advances near Burgohondo, Ávila province, Spain, Friday, July 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
A firefighting helicopter drops water on the flames as a wildfire advances near Burgohondo, Ávila province, Spain, Friday, July 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
A burning barn is seen next to a farm house during wildfires near Le Porge, western France, Thursday, July 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Caroline Blumberg)
Wildfires advance near Le Proge region, western France, Thursday, July 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Caroline Blumberg)
A wall of flames advances as a wildfire burns near Burgohondo, in Ávila province, Spain, Thursday, July 23, 2026. (Mateo Lanzuela/Europa Press via AP)
Residents spend the night at a sports center after being evacuated from their homes because of the threat of a wildfire in Cebreros, Ávila province, Spain, Friday, July 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Residents spend the night at a sports center after being evacuated from their homes because of the threat of a wildfire in Cebreros, Ávila province, Spain, Friday, July 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Residents spend the night at a sports center after being evacuated from their homes because of the threat of a wildfire in Cebreros, Ávila province, Spain, Friday, July 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
