Iga Swiatek Reaches Her First Final of 2026 Season At the Canadian Open

Six-time Grand Slam champion, Iga Swiatek overcame a tough challenge from Elina Svitolina to seal her 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 comeback win in Toronto and reach her first WTA final of the season in 2026.

The 25-year-old player from Poland has not reached a single final since winning the Cincinnati open last year in 2025. In fact she reached the final four only once this earlier year.

After the win, the seventh seed at the Canadian open, Swiatek said, “It hasn’t been an easy season, probably the toughest one in my life. This week has been really positive and inspirational for me and it always kind of shows that you need to keep going no matter what.”

Later in the day, the Australian Open 2026 championship and World No 2, Elena Rabykina also booked her place in the final despite losing the opening set to Coco Gauff. She then made a terrific comeback and won four games in a row to secure a win by 5-7, 6-2, 6-2.

Rabykina had a tough outing in her quarterfinal match too as she had to fight hard against Naomi Osaka before clinching the deal in a remarkable comeback. “I feel like in the first set we were playing well but then I rushed a little bit.” said the 27-year-old, Kazakhstani player. She further added, I am just glad that I managed to win again in three sets.

On playing Swiatek in the finals, Rabykina said, “It’s going to be a very difficult match, and we know each other so well. We play so many times. In my case, I feel it's more about the recovery after so many hours on the court, and bringing as much energy as I can.”

The Canadian Open 2026 finals on Friday will be the 13th meeting between the two players and both the players have won six matches in their previous meetings so far. In their last meeting, which was also the only match of 2026 before this between the two players, it was Kazak who came on top in straight sets at the quarterfinals of the Australian Open.

In the men’s singles section of the Canadian Open 2026, Ben Shelton and fellow American Brandon Nakashima will play each other in the finals after both of them won their semi-finals in straight sets against Learner Tien and Rafael Jodar respectively.

A win for Nakashima in Canada would mean that he secures his first Masters 1000 title and it will go down as the most prestigious win of his career so far. And if Shelton wins it, he will retain the title that he won last year and it will be his seventh ATP tournament win overall.