Ben Shelton has stepped in to support Jannik Sinner after the world No. 1 came under scrutiny for pulling out of the Canadian Open.

Sinner, along with Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz, will not feature at the Masters event. The Italian said he wanted to “prioritise his health”, a decision that has drawn questions, especially because he was on course to become the first player in tennis history to win every Masters event in a single calendar year.

Even so, Sinner has also drawn approval from former players, with Kim Clijsters among those to praise his choice to sit out the tournament.

Shelton, who is competing at the Washington Open before moving on to the Canadian Open, also defended Sinner during his press conference.

“I’m not sure how sustainable the current circuit setup is. I think, for me, the biggest concern is injuries. Sinner knows his body better than anyone, like all players,” he said during his Washington Open press conference.

“If Jannik and Novak feel physically and mentally prepared, they’ll play. In my opinion, they don’t miss a tournament without a reason. (Jannik) is winning as many matches as he plays; his match count is extremely high. How is he going to be able to play in all the tournaments? I don’t think it’s sustainable.”

The numbers help explain Shelton’s point. Sinner has already played 47 matches on the ATP Tour this season, despite skipping several tournaments. Shelton, by comparison, has played 36 matches across the first seven months of the year, while also collecting three ATP titles.

Sinner’s schedule has still been packed with matches at the events he has entered. He has reached the final of every tournament he has played this season except the Australian Open, the Qatar Open and Roland Garros. His loss at Roland Garros was also the only time he exited a tournament before the quarter-finals.

That becomes more notable when set against the fact that Sinner took most of the grass court season off. For the world No. 1, the strategy may be a practical way to manage fatigue and health without giving up on his Grand Slam ambitions.

If that approach continues, it could become a pattern not just for Sinner, but for other leading players on the ATP Tour as well.

The Canadian Open has quietly turned into one of the ATP Tour’s hardest events to sell to the game’s biggest names. In recent seasons, Novak Djokovic has skipped it since 2018, while Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have also stayed away from the North American tournament over the last two years.

That stands in sharp contrast to the event’s earlier prestige. In 2010, the title was lifted by names such as Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, and Rafael Nadal. More recently, the trophy has gone to Alexei Popyrin and Ben Shelton, a shift that has only sharpened the sense that the event is struggling to hold its status with the top of the game.

A number of explanations have been offered for the pattern. The two-week Masters format is one of the most common. Others point to the length of the North American hard-court swing, while the heat and the tournament’s timing close to Wimbledon have also been cited.

Whatever the cause, the issue has become difficult to ignore, and Mark Petchey believes he has an answer. Speaking on The Big T Podcast, the former coach of Andy Murray and Emma Raducanu argued that the ATP should consider a special arrangement to help the Canadian Open draw leading players through guarantees.

“I honestly think the only fix for Canada on the ATP side is again to make a kind of separate rule for them, so that they can entice the top players with a guarantee,” he explained.

“Which obviously they they can’t pay guarantees at the thousand level because the bonus pool has been put in there to try and protect the tournaments.

“It’s not really for the players. It’s to protect the tournament so they don’t have to pay out more money if the top players don’t play,” he continued.

“But I’m almost of the opinion that Canada feels as though it’s going to be a difficult child syndrome for the ATP. And if you’re going to try and help them, you almost have to loosen the purse strings.”

The bonus pool is distributed to the top 30 players at Masters events who have played eight or more tournaments on the ATP Tour calendar. It is worth $21.5 million and is based on rankings points collected at those elite events. With Sinner’s withdrawal, he is now one tournament away from no longer being eligible for consideration. His bonus pool earnings for 2026 will also be reduced by 25%, although that figure is unlikely to matter much given the millions he has already earned this season.

The surge that began for Alex Eala at the Miami Open in March 2025 has shown little sign of easing. Her run to the semi-finals of that WTA 1000 event introduced a wider audience to her talent, and her first WTA Tour final at the Eastbourne Open the following June only strengthened the sense that something significant was building.

Even during stretches when results did not come as quickly as expected, Eala continued to draw an unusually loyal global following. In the Philippines, that support has been especially intense, helping push her toward the top of tennis popularity charts and giving her profile a reach that has extended well beyond her ranking position.

Her progress has accelerated in 2026. Eala’s victory over defending champion Iga Swiatek on a memorable middle Saturday at Wimbledon stood out as another defining moment, and it has left her on the brink of an even larger jump. With limited ranking points to defend over the next few weeks, she has a realistic chance to enter the top 20 of the WTA Rankings for the first time.

The final major of the season now offers the next major test. If Eala can make a serious impact at the US Open, especially across the later rounds, her status could move from promising contender to a far more established place in the conversation.

Her own comments after losing to Jasmine Paolini at Wimbledon reflected both realism and confidence. “There are so many positives,” she said. “One is how I’ve handled pressure. I mean, there’s pressure every week, right? Of course, the more you want to win, I think the more kind of like pressure goes along with that.

“I’m happy with how I faced it head on. I think I kept cool when I needed to control my emotions. Overall, performed the best that I could on the day.

“I think this week in general will add to my confidence. I mean, it’s been one of my best results, right? Of course, it will add confidence.

“I think it’s important that every match I played this week, and every match that I play, I go in with the self-esteem and the thought that I’m able to win. I don’t think that necessarily because of one week or the other that that will change.

“I did have to manage the emotions. I think that’s also the beauty of kind of like letting all the emotions out after, when you feel them, is that you’re able to have that moment. It’s also part of professionalism.

“I think I prepared pretty well for this match. There are so many different factors to today that contributed to the result of why it happened. I think on that aspect, I did pretty well.”

The momentum is real, and so is the expectation that her rise may soon become even more pronounced.