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World No 3 Elena Rybakina has learned her potential route to claiming the Montreal title. Rybakina, seeded at No 3, won't be starting her campaign from the first round as she has a first-round bye. In her tournament opener, Rybakina will likely play against 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko.
In the Montreal round-of-16, Rybakina's projected opponent is No 16 seed and former world No 1 Victoria Azarenka. In the Montreal quarterfinal, Rybakina is projected to play against fifth-seeded Caroline Garcia. The projected Montreal semifinal in the bottom part of the draw is between Rybakina and No 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka.
If Rybakina reaches the Montreal final, there she could very easily meet world No 1 Iga Swiatek.
Rybakina set to play her first tournament since Wimbledon
At Wimbledon, Rybakina failed to defend her title after losing to Ons Jabeur in the quarterfinal.
Last year, Rybakina defeated Jabeur in the Wimbledon final to become a Grand Slam champion but this year she didn't manage to beat the Tunisian again at The Championships. After exiting Wimbledon, 24-year-old Rybakina was asked to reveal how it really felt for her to be the defending champion at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in her career.
"As I said from the beginning, it was kind of a new challenge for me coming as a defending champion. It's of course different feeling. Actually really proud of the first few matches because it's not easy. I would say that every match I played was a little bit better than the other one.
I think no matter the result of today, it was a positive few weeks for me here. Yeah, I just need to work a little bit more now before the US swing. I will take a lot of positive from these two weeks," Rybakina said after exiting Wimbledon. It remains to be seen if Rybakina can bounce back in Montreal and win her third title of the year.