Although the eyes of the tennis world are squarely locked onto events in Tokyo right now, soon the ATP calendar will once again swing back into action and one of its next stops will be the Canadian city of Toronto.

That’s because the Men’s tour returns to the city after an enforced hiatus last year and whereas the upcoming tournament was previously known as the Rogers Cup, it will now undergo a new moniker for 2021.

This means whereas it was previously known as the Rogers Cup, it will now be known as the National Bank Open and although the name may be different, the calibre of entrants has by no means lessened.

With it serving as part of the build-up to this year’s US Open, it will act as the perfect proving ground for a litany of top names and although there are some high-profile withdrawals, it is still set to be an incredibly competitive week of Tennis.

Of those who are unfortunately not making the trip, the leader of this unfortunate group is undoubtedly Novak Djokovic and for those hoping to get a glimpse of the Serbian star, they will be rather disappointed.

While the 34-year-old is also joined by the trio of David Goffin, Dominic Thiem, and Stan Wawrinka, as original entrants who will not be taking to the court when proceedings get underway on Friday, August 6^th.

These four will obviously be sorely missed after their decision not to travel to Toronto, but where possible the show will always go on in the world of tennis and this is a show, that now looks set to be dominated by Spanish ace Rafael Nadal.

With Nadal winning the last staging of the competition two years ago, he will be one of the favourites and at Pointsbet the odds are at +600 for the 35-year-old to win here for a second time in three years.

While it is interesting to highlight the seeding format for the upcoming National Bank Open and although there are 16 seeds for the tournament, not all of them have the same equal standings for the draw.

That’s because those players who are seeded nine to sixteen, will earn a favourable draw for the first round and should they live up to their billing as a seeded star, they should then progress to the second round.

Which is where the top eight seeds enter the fray and although there is an element of protectionism with such a setup, it does at least increase the likelihood of the biggest names going deeper into the week’s events.

On the topic of this year’s seeds, there is a rather logical setup in that it mimics that of the current world rankings (bar the withdrawal of world number one Novak Djokovic) and with Nadal finding himself ranked number three, it means he has been awarded the luxury of the second seed.

Therefore, if it is not the Mallorca born who has been afforded top seed status, the question is who and the answer is none other than Russia’s Dannii Medvedev – who at the time of writing is the world number two.

Can Medvedev do the business in Toronto? There is absolutely no reason why not and for those who like to bet on the men who are considered a part of tennis’ next golden age, backing the Russian may be a rather shrewd bet.

The 25-year-old has made it to two Grand Slam finals and in both has been the bridesmaid rather than the bride, after losing in the 2019 US Open and also at the start of the year, in the Australian Open.

Which suggest that he is rather handy when it comes to hard court tennis and as mentioned before, this will act as the perfect warm up to the US Open, which is set to place in New York at the end of August.

Therefore, what better warning shot to the rest of his counterparts, then coming out on top in the National Bank Open and if he can get the better of Rafael Nadal in Toronto, he may also end up exacting revenge for his US Open final defeat of two years ago.