The National Bank Open has wrapped up its first week, and the transition into the tournament’s back half has fans more frustrated than excited. Barely any matches were played on Day 9 in Montreal, and Toronto’s Day 10 schedule looks just as thin, a scheduling pattern that has reignited complaints about the event’s 12-day format.

Montreal’s Day 9 slate came down to just four singles matches and two men’s doubles matches, six matches total across an entire day of play. Toronto fared even thinner on Day 10, with only three matches on the docket: two singles quarterfinals in the night session and a single doubles quarterfinal, with the tournament’s other doubles quarterfinal already pushed to Day 11 after one semifinal spot had been decided early.

That kind of drop-off wasn’t always part of the Canadian Open experience. Before 2011, the tournament ran as a one-week event, with the men’s and women’s tournaments held in separate weeks entirely. Since adopting the 12-day, dual-city format in 2025, both legs of the event now run concurrently over a much longer stretch, and the trade-off has been long stretches with very little actually happening on court.

The current quarterfinal picture explains some of the sparse scheduling. In Montreal, the final eight is set: Rafael Jodar takes on Arthur Fils, Luciano Darderi faces Brandon Nakashima, Jakub Mensik meets Ben Shelton, and Learner Tien squares off against Daniel Merida. In Toronto, Diana Shnaider plays Iga Swiatek and Elina Svitolina faces Ekaterina Alexandrova on Monday, while Belinda Bencic takes on Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka meets Elena Rybakina on Tuesday.

Fewer matches naturally come with the territory once a draw thins out to eight players per event. What’s rankled fans is how suddenly it happened, going from a fully packed schedule straight into a near-empty one right at the one-week mark.

Fans fume over National Bank Open’s strange scheduling

One fan accused organizers of prioritizing ticket sales over match quality. “They’re milking as much money as they can by extending the tournament to 2 weeks. More tickets sold and fewer matches for said tickets. And I am not sure that it helps the players either.”

Another argued the extended format has never actually been popular. “Two-week masters events are ridiculous, even when they’re in the same city, this just makes it even worse. I’ve literally never heard from anyone who likes them. What will it take to end this stupidity??”

A third fan was more direct about what they want to see instead. “It’s horrible. I really hope they change back to the one-week format for the NBO.”

Despite the backlash, there’s no indication the National Bank Open is reconsidering the format. The tournament continues Monday and Tuesday with all eight quarterfinals across both cities, before the semifinals and finals close out the event on August 13.