2023 Omnium Banque National women's preview: Iga Swiatek headlines Montréal crew

WATCH: Swiatek is fresh off winning her home title in Warsaw.

Nine of the Top 10 men are in Toronto this week, and the same goes for the women in Montréal. Ons Jabeur is the only player from that elite group who didn’t make the trip across the Atlantic. She cited a knee injury, but no one would blame her if she needed some extra time to put her Wimbledon loss behind her before she got back out on court.

Montréal won’t have Jabeur, but it will have the WTA’s nascent Big 3, Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka, and Elena Rybakina, as well as its newest Grand Slam champion, Marketa Vondrousova. In last year’s WTA final in Canada, the 15th seed, Simona Halep, beat unseeded Beatriz Haddad Maia. Might we be in store for a surprise like that in 2023? I’m not going to bet on it.

First Quarter

Swiatek comes to North America in a slightly better place than she did last year. In 2022, she lost early at Wimbledon, and then lost at her home event in Warsaw. In 2023, she went deeper at Wimbledon, and won the title in Warsaw, where the courts had been switched from clay to hard.

Can Iga also improve on her third-round loss to Haddad Maia at this event a year ago? There will be obstacles: Karolina Pliskova, potentially, in her first match; Karolina Muchova in the round of 16; Maria Sakkari, Elina Svitolina, or Haddad Maia in the quarters. After a strong week in D.C., Sakkari looks to be in form, and Svitolina beat Swiatek at Wimbledon.

First-round matches to watch: Muchova vs. Anastasia Potapova, Haddad Maia vs. Paula Badosa

Semifinalist: Swiatek

Second Quarter

Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff are regular doubles partners and the Top 2 U.S. women. They’re also the two highest seeds in this section. Pegula has been steady enough to maintain a Top 5 ranking this season, while Gauff, after some stagnation, came to D.C. last week with a new coaching team and played some of her best tennis of the year. A year ago in Canada, she beat Rybakina and Sabalenka in back-to-back third-set tiebreakers.

But there’s another player of note here: Vondrousova, the surprise Wimbledon champion. She’ll return to the tour with a first-round contest against Mayar Sherif, and could play Gauff in the round of 16. It may be hard to imagine, but the typically pleasant American and Czech actually had words in their only meeting, in Dubai in 2021, a match that Gauff won 6-4 in the third.

Wild card: Caroline Wozniacki. The former No. 1 has been away for three years, but she’s still only 33. She could play Vondrousova in the second round.

First-round match to watch: Madison Keys vs. Venus Williams

Semifinalist: Gauff

Third Quarter

In the last 13 months, Rybakina has won Wimbledon, Indian Wells, and Rome, and made the Australian Open final. Her only slump, relatively-speaking, came during the North American hard-court swing last summer.

Right now, it doesn’t feel like she has the type of momentum that will help her do better this year. She had to withdraw from Roland Garros early, and she lost from a set up to Jabeur at Wimbledon. But she’s in a manageable quarter: Rybakina will start against either Jelena Ostapenko or Jen Brady; could play Victoria Azarenka after that; and has Caroline Garcia or Daria Kasatkina as possible quarterfinal opponents.

Semifinalist: Rybakina

Fourth Quarter

Jabeur isn’t the only player trying to recover from a Wimbledon collapse. Sabalenka is, too. She led Jabeur by a set and a break in the semifinals, and for a moment she looked like a title winner in waiting. Then she stopped hitting the ball in, and squandered a winnable semifinal for the third time in her last four Slams.

Is Sabalenka ready to move forward? We’ll see this week. She made the semifinals here in 2021. This time her road to back there is moderately difficult. Sabalenka could start against Petra Martic, get an in-form Liudmila Samsonova in the round of 16, and may see Petra Kvitova or Belinda Bencic in the quarters.

Wild Card: Bianca Andreescu. Can the native Canadian, and 2019 champion, find the magic again up north? She could play Kvitova in a hard-hitting second-rounder.

Semifinalist: Sabalenka

Semifinals: Swiatek d. Gauff; Rybakina d. Sabalenka

Final: Swiatek d. Rybakina