Arthur Fils, sidelined since his grueling five-set victory over Jaume Munar at Roland Garros due to a stress fracture in his back, is poised to make his comeback at the National Bank Open. The timing of this injury was unfortunate as Fils had been delivering some of his best tennis to date.

His recovery status leaves some uncertainty about his form, but despite this, the potential benefits of backing Fils outweigh the risks compared to the current state of Pablo Carreno Busta. Carreno Busta secured a win recently as an underdog against Challenger-level player Liam Draxl. However, Draxl, despite an impressive 39-13 record in Challengers this year, has yet to claim an ATP-level match victory.

Carreno Busta’s recent performances reflect inconsistency, including a straight-set defeat to Gauthier Onclin at a Lyon Challenger. His ATP tour-level record stands at a concerning 4-9, coupled with a low break percentage of only 15.2%. These factors position Carreno Busta at a disadvantage, especially with his struggles on return games.

Fils, on the other hand, is expected to showcase a strong serving game and athleticism, despite moments where he may not be at full strength. His improvements in return play are notable, with a break rate increased to 23.6%, an area that previously hampered his game.

Their recent encounter in Barcelona saw Fils triumph in straight sets, 7-6 (6), 6-3, on Carreno Busta’s home ground. Given the faster conditions and neutral setting of the National Bank Open, a similar outcome seems plausible. This analysis supports laying 3.5 games with the 21-year-old Frenchman as a confident pick for this match.

Bianca Andreescu has officially withdrawn from the Omnium Banque Nationale in Montréal, citing torn ligaments in her ankle suffered during a match against Barbora Krejcikova. The 2019 US Open champion was close to defeating Krejcikova when the injury occurred, causing her to fall. Although Andreescu finished the match, she was unable to compete in her scheduled second-round match against Mirra Andreeva, the No. 4 seed.

“It definitely sucks because this has happened before,” Andreescu said during a press conference. “Honestly, guys, I don’t have much to say. It’s really frustrating for me and my team, obviously. We’re doing the best that we can to prevent these things, but yeah, it’s tough.”

Andreescu’s career has been heavily impacted by injuries, limiting her playtime throughout the last six years since her breakthrough victory over Serena Williams at the 2019 US Open. She showed signs of returning to form at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia earlier this year, making it to the fourth round with wins over Donna Vekic and Elena Rybakina.

Ranked currently at No. 187, Andreescu accepted a wildcard to play in Montréal following her leadership in Canada’s victory at the Hopman Cup.

“It’s kind of a day-to-day thing,” she noted. “I’m hoping to be ready for Cincinnati, but yeah, we don’t know. Can’t say.”

Describing the injury, Andreescu added, “It was out of nowhere. Just happened. I mean, we work proprioception every single day. We do foot exercises, ankles. Yeah, we can’t really explain it. Maybe it was emotions. Maybe I was a little bit tired. I just stepped in a weird way.

“Yeah, we’re kind of just saying it was a freak accident. It’s all we can really say.”

Iga Swiatek shared her emotional struggle after receiving news of a failed doping test due to a contaminated melatonin batch. The six-time Grand Slam champion revealed that the situation, which arose from a positive test for the banned substance trimetazidine, left her crying for two weeks and confused about her future in tennis.

Swiatek detailed the moment she discovered the test result during a sponsor photoshoot in Warsaw: “I went on my email and I saw that an email from this portal, and I thought it was just a reminder of my whereabouts or something. I didn’t even read it because I started crying, and my agents who were at the shoot thought that someone had died.”

The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) accepted her explanation that the violation was unintentional, caused by contamination in a non-prescription melatonin supplement she used for jet lag and sleep issues. Following investigations and consultation with WADA-accredited laboratories, the ITIA imposed a one-month suspension and ruled the offense non-intentional.

Despite the resolution, Swiatek was forced to miss several tournaments, including important WTA 1000 events in Beijing and Wuhan. She recounted the impact: “When everything came out [publicly], I was basically crying for two weeks, couldn’t practice, because I felt that tennis did this to me and that I’m in this place because of tennis. I felt like I was losing my integrity, like no one is going to believe me that I didn’t do anything wrong and that the whole world would turn their backs on me and that every accomplishment that I had would start to disappear.”

Swiatek also highlighted the complexity of navigating such cases publicly, emphasizing the need for privacy until clear evidence is presented: “If anyone were to say straight away with this kind of case without the data or proof that you did nothing wrong, we would all be finished and they would hate us.”

Now recovered and prepared, Swiatek will return to competition at the Canadian Open, beginning with a matchup against world No. 33 Hanyu Guo.