Ben Shelton defends Canadian Open title with straight-sets win over Nakashima in Montreal

Shelton defends Canadian Open title

Ben Shelton successfully defended his Canadian Open title with a 6-3, 7-6(4) victory over fellow American Brandon Nakashima in Thursday's all-American final in Montreal. The 87-minute win gave Shelton his second Masters 1000 crown, his seventh career title, and his fourth trophy of the 2026 season.

The final was the first all-American Masters 1000 title match since Andy Roddick defeated Mardy Fish in Cincinnati in 2003, and the first all-American Canadian Open final since Andre Agassi faced Pete Sampras in 1995. Shelton became the fourth player this century to win back-to-back Canadian Open titles, joining Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, and Rafael Nadal. He also became the third man born in the 2000s to win multiple Masters 1000 titles, alongside Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, and the third American man this century to win multiple titles at this level, alongside Roddick and Agassi.

Match flow

Nakashima, playing in his first Masters 1000 final and seeking a first win over Shelton in six career meetings, opened with four aces in the first game. The pair traded holds through 3-3 before Shelton seized control, breaking for 4-3 with a forehand return winner off a second serve. He struck again in the final game of the set as Nakashima's forehand faltered.

Nakashima weathered the pressure in the second set and forced a tiebreak, but Shelton seized the initiative with a mini-break before closing out the match with a forehand winner into the corner. Shelton became the first Canadian Open champion since Djokovic in 2016 to win the tournament without dropping a set, and the first player since Nadal in 2019 to successfully defend the title.

A season rediscovered

Shelton arrived in Montreal after a turbulent stretch at the biggest events. He suffered a first-round exit at Wimbledon, a second-round defeat at Roland Garros, and had managed just one win across his first four Masters 1000 events of the season, that lone victory coming at Indian Wells in March. Before Montreal, he had won a single Masters 1000 match out of five played this season.

To play the way that I've played this week, to go through this draw without dropping a set, I think it speaks a lot to the work that I've been putting in, but it speaks a lot to my mental toughness.

It hasn't been the best for me, easiest or most straightforward year for me, to put together a performance like this and playing at the top of my game, I have no words.

Shelton's four titles this season have come on four different surfaces: indoor hardcourt in Dallas, clay in Munich, grass in Stuttgart, and outdoor hard court in Montreal. The victory will lift him from 10th to sixth in the rankings.

What's next

Shelton now heads to the Cincinnati Masters, the final tune-up before the U.S. Open, which begins on August 30. He arrives riding a 12-match winning streak in Canada and will look to maintain his form for the year's final Grand Slam, where no American man has won the singles title since Roddick in 2003.

The tournament in Montreal was the first ATP Masters 1000 event in which all eight quarterfinalists were born in the 2000s, a marker of the sport's generational shift. Several top seeds departed early: No. 2 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime withdrew before the first round due to injury, while Alexander Zverev, Alex de Minaur, and Daniil Medvedev all lost early.