Canadian Open draw: Carlos Alcaraz-Holger Rune clash on cards in loaded top half, Andy Murray gets Italian job

Shahida Jacobs
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Carlos Alcaraz and Holger Rune post match
Carlos Alcaraz and Holger Rune after a match

Young guns Carlos Alcaraz and Holger Rune are projected to meet in the quarter-final of the Canadian Open, although both have to get through some tricky encounters with the top half of the draw also containing Stefanos Tsitsipas and Jannik Sinner.

Just a few weeks after meeting in the quarter-final at Wimbledon, a match that Alcaraz won in straight sets, the Spaniard and Norwegian are expected to meet at the same stage of the ATP Masters 1000 event.

However, both will need to negotiate potential banana skin matches early on with top seed Alcaraz set to face either rising American star Ben Shelton or Bernabe Zapata Miralles in the second round. If he gets through that then he is likely to face 15th seed Hubert Hurkacz – a former semi-finalist at the event – in the third round.

Rune kicks off his campaign against either Emil Ruusuvuori or a qualifier/special exempt entry and he is projected to meet 12th seed Tommy Paul in the third round before a potential clash with Alcaraz.

Should the form book hold then the winner of the Alcaraz-Rune clash will face either fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas or seventh seed Jannik Sinner in the semi-final.

But Tsitsipas has landed a tough second-round match as he will face either Gael Monfils or Chris Eubanks while he could potentially face 14th seed Borna Coric or Grigor Dimitrov in the third round.

Sinner, meanwhile, opens his campaign against either fellow Italian Matteo Berrettini or France’s Gregoire Barrere. Should he get through that he will either play one of Felix Auger-Aliassime, a qualifier, Lorenzo Sonego or Andy Murray.

Tenth seed Auger-Aliassime takes on a qualifier or a special exempt entry first up and victory will earn him a match against the winner of the Sonego-Murray clash.

Sonego hasn’t played since reaching the semi-final of the Croatia Open last week while Murray made it to second round of the Citi Open on Friday before losing in three sets against top seed Taylor Fritz.

Daniil Medvedev headlines the bottom half of the draw and the second seed will kick off his campaign against either Vasek Pospisil or a qualifier/special exempt entry while he is projected to meet 16th seed Lorenzo Musetti in the third round.

If the seedings hold then Medvedev is set to clash with Fritz in the quarter-final although the eighth seed will likely have to get past either 11th seed Cameron Norrie or Alex de Minaur in the third round.

Third seed Casper Ruud is the big drawcard in Section 3 and the Norwegian opens against a qualifier or Jiri Lehecka while he could meet 13th seed Alexander Zverev in the third round and Andrey Rublev in the quarter-final. Sixth seed Rublev, though, needs to get past Mackenzie McDonald or Aslan Karatsev first up and potentially Frances Tiafoe in the third round.

The Canadian Open was brutal for the top players last year as Alcaraz, Medvedev, Tsitsipas, Rune and Rublev all lost in the second round with Sinner exiting in the third round.

READ MORE: What Carlos Alcaraz needs to do to secure No 1 ranking and US Open top seed ahead of Novak Djokovic

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