Financial fallout from skipping the Montreal Masters which began on Sunday with rain interruptions likely means little to absent drawcard Novak Djokovic, who has joined world No. 1 Jannik Sinner and injury victim Carlos Alcaraz in missing the Canadian date.

The late withdrawals from the trio of household names has hit Canadian tennis bosses where it hurts and they have called for financial and other sanctions on miscreant players.

Top seed Zverev, the world No. 2 who followed up his Roland Garros title in June with a July runner-up spot at Wimbledon against Sinner, said missing year-end bonus payments would mean absolutely nothing to the multimillionaires of the sport.

“You think Novak will care if he gets a bigger bonus? I think the guy has – if I would have to guess, the guy is north of 400 million in his bank account,” the Montreal top seed said.

“I’m not sure he would care about 50,000 (dollars) more or less.”

He added that rankings also mean little to a player who has been-there, done- that and won more than USD 190 million in prize money alone at age 39.

“I don’t think he cares about his ranking either,” Zverev added, suggesting that the controversial new format of 12-day Masters is a drain on players.

“If (the tournament calendar) goes to the old (system) and we would play one-week Masters events,” the 29-year-old said.

“If you’re forcing us to be away for two and a half, three weeks during Grand Slams and the same then goes for Masters events, you can’t force us to play. Sorry, that’s nonsense.”

Zverev suggested that the current calendar needs a major re-think.

.”I think (the player pullouts) are a result of the two-week Masters event. It’s just too long for some players, too much before the US Open.

“I used to play more 500 events, 250 events when the Masters were shorter, but now I don’t do that anymore just because of time spent away and time spent on tournaments.”

He added: “My team and I had a thought also of maybe skipping Montreal, but then we decided to play it. I need to play matches. I need to play tournaments.
“I don’t think maybe I’ll play my best tennis here, but the result of playing here, I think I’ll play better in Cincinnati and then hopefully my best tennis in New York.”

Main photo:- Alexander Zverev with Coupe des Mousquetaires after winning Men’s final – Roger Parker International Sports Fotos Ltd

Alex de Minaur saved face in an excruciating all-Aussie clash at the ATP event in Washington as he defeated the teenaged son of Australian icon Lleyton Hewitt to reach the quarter-finals.

The freshly married de Minaur played for the first time in more than three weeks after losing a Wimbledon fourth-round and then getting hitched to British player Katie Boulter.

Cruz Hewitt, 17-year-old son of Lleyton, took the 6-2, 6-3 loss as de Minaur reached the last eight of the pre-US open tune-up.

But facing the son of one of your tennis mentors was not easy for the sixth-ranked winner. who admitted that his own awkward form needs some quick improvement.

“It was definitely weird, I knew I was going to play him (Cruz) on the Tour some day, but I didn’t actually expect it to be this week,” de Minaur said.

“Even all the lead up, seeing all the incredible pictures that we have together and how we’ve both grown up. I’m glad I managed to get through, but I’m sure we’re going to have many battles in the years to come.”

But those sentiments could not distract from the oddity of paying the son of a mentor and Davis Cup captain.

“I expected Lleyton to be),in the box, and helping his son. But we both didn’t know how to kind of act, right?

“It was definitely a weird situation, but now that this has happened the next time we’ll all be ready for it, that’s for sure.”

De Minaur, 27, will now line up against Brandon Nakashima, a winner over seventh seed Jakub Mensik 7-6 (5), 3-  6-4.

De Minaur is defending his 2025 title in the US capital and somehow felt lucky to escape with the win over Hewitt, Jr after a long-ish layoff.

“(This is the ) longest I’ve been without touching a racket and it’s probably the worst I felt on court after this. The body was in bits, aching all over the place.

“I felt like I aged about 20 years over 13 days but the one thing I definitely told my team was that, ‘Yeah, I can’t take this much time off’. 

“I need the body to at least keep moving because if not it’s tough to get back on the horse.”

Jannik Sinner’s achilles heel – actually, his hot-weather fitness – is becoming more and more of a reality for his coaching co-pilots, with Simone Vagnozzi now learning to live with the physical quirks of the world No. 1.

Sinner was going strong at Roland Garros after winning five straight Masters 1000 titles since March, when he suddenly folded in the first of the continuing heat waves striking Paris, going out in a second-round shock to Juan Manuel Cerundolo.

The 24-year-old Italian then skipped all Wimbledon buildups, coming to London and winning the title for a second straight edition.

But Sinner, also coached by Australian guru Darren Cahill – then sprang a fresh surprise by withdrawing from next month’s US Open tuneup in Montreal, preferring to save his body for the open starting in a month.

Vagnozzi told Milan’s Corriere della Siera that is just the way it works for the team guiding the world’s top player.

“There were extreme temperatures in Paris, and he arrived with considerable physical and mental strain,” he said.  

“The minor setbacks he experienced are the result of many small factors coming together – but one mustn’t forget that these are a total of four incidents in the last five years.”

But the problem looks likely to remain a constant for Sinner, who grew up in the temperate summer temperatures of the Alps on the Austrian border and excelled at youth ski racing before choosing tennis

.”The heat, the fatigue, and the tension can all interact. There isn’t just one factor – if there were, the problem would be easier to solve. We have to learn to live with these episodes and work on preventing them,” Vagnozzi said.

But that is not to say that Sinner cannot overcome his apparent weakness.

“Jannik is special in this respect as well. He tells himself: ‘I’m making great sacrifices, I’m giving up my youth for this sport – I simply can’t give up,’ Vagnozzi added.

“Players like that feel stronger than others and want to prove it. That’s precisely what gives them the strength to always react and not give up, even when facing a significant deficit.”

Main photo:-Jannik Sinner celebrates Wimbledon 2026 victory by Roger Parker International Sports Fotos Ltd