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Iga Swiatek defeated Elena Rybakina 6-2, 6-3 on Thursday night to win the National Bank Open women’s tennis tournament in Toronto.
The seventh seed from Poland broke Rybakina’s serve on her first attempt and didn’t look back en route to her first WTA Tour title in almost a year.
Swiatek earned another break at 2-2 in the second set before closing out the win in a tidy 75 minutes on a glorious summer evening at Sobeys Stadium.
The six-time Grand Slam champion was projected to move up two spots to sixth in the latest world rankings. Rybakina, the second seed, will remain at No. 2.
Swiatek will earn $1.09 million of the $7.43-million US overall purse. Rybakina pockets about $565,000.
Swiatek, who improved her career mark to 26-5 in tour finals, moved Rybakina around the baseline from the outset and used deft net play to her advantage.
The six-foot Rybakina leads the circuit in aces, but couldn’t overpower her opponent on this night, with Swiatek’s strong defensive skills were on full display.
Earlier in the day, Czechia’s Katerina Siniakova and China’s Shuai Zhang defeated Italy’s Sara Errani and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the United States 6-3, 6-4 in the doubles final.
The top seeds needed 80 minutes to complete the victory over their third-seeded opponents.
Canada’s Victoria Mboko won the NBO women’s title last year in Montreal. She was unable to defend her title due to a knee injury.
Roof at Toronto tennis venue not on horizon
There are no immediate plans for Toronto to follow Montreal’s lead on a proposed project that would see a retractable roof installed at IGA Stadium, tournament director Karl Hale said Thursday.
Last June, Tennis Canada announced plans to build a new centre-court stadium as part of a major modernization of its facilities at Jarry Park. The organization conducted a yearlong feasibility study to examine options for the long-term future of the National Bank Open in Montreal.
The venue’s centre court last underwent major renovations in 1996.
“Toronto was built in 2004 and it’s a newer stadium,” Hale said at his end-of-tournament media availability. “So we’ll focus on Montreal for now.”
Wet weather at both events — the WTA Tour was in Toronto this summer and the ATP Tour stop was in Montreal – forced organizers to pivot throughout the 12-day competitions.
Rain forced a delay to the evening semifinal session in Toronto on Wednesday with the late match finishing around 1 a.m. local time. The 96-player format, now in its second season, leads toa Thursday final rather than a traditional Sunday championship.
The proposed Montreal modernization project would boost centre court capacity by about 3,000 to approximately 15,000 seats while adding up to four practice courts and a match court.
Next steps include determining the construction timeline, estimated costs and how the project will be funded, Tennis Canada has said. The organization added that discussions with all three levels of government about potential funding were underway.
Hale described the women’s National Bank Open as “incredible” this year, noting an estimated total attendance of about 215,000 would be a WTA Toronto record for the city.
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