Wimbledon Afterglow Fades Fast: Linda Noskova and Alexander Zverev Both Fall In First Matches In Canada

Grand Slam glory doesn’t guarantee a soft landing on the next surface, and Wednesday in Canada was proof of exactly that. Fresh off the biggest results of their careers at the All England Club, Wimbledon women’s champion Linda Noskova and men’s runner-up Alexander Zverev both suffered jarring first-match losses at the Canadian Open — Noskova in Toronto, Zverev across the country in Montreal.

Noskova’s Reign on Grass Doesn’t Travel to Hard Courts

Just over three weeks after lifting the Venus Rosewater Dish with a dramatic three-set win over compatriot Karolina Muchova, Linda Noskova returned to action at the National Bank Open in Toronto — and it did not go the way the script suggested. The No. 6 seed and newly minted world No. 7 raced out to a 5-1 lead in the first set against American Caty McNally, only to watch it slip away entirely. McNally reeled off six straight games to steal the opening set in a tiebreak, then cruised through the second 6-1 to complete the upset, 7-6(5), 6-1.

It marked Noskova’s first match since her Wimbledon triumph, and a brutal welcome back to hard courts after weeks of grass-court dominance capped by titles in Berlin and London. McNally, ranked outside the top 70, had beaten Noskova once before — in a 2022 ITF clay event in Trnava — but this result carried far more weight given the stage and the form Noskova had been riding.

The loss ends any hopes of the blockbuster third-round showdown with Alexandra Eala that the Toronto draw had been buzzing about, and it’s a reminder of just how quickly momentum can shift once a Grand Slam champion steps off the grass and into a new tournament as the hunted rather than the hunter.

Zverev’s Montreal Nightmare Continues a Rough Return

Alexander Zverev’s return to competition proved just as jarring. The German, who fell to Jannik Sinner in the Wimbledon final, entered the National Bank Open in Montreal as the tournament’s top seed with the sport’s biggest names — Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, and Novak Djokovic — all having withdrawn before the event even began. It should have been Zverev’s tournament to control. Instead, Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor knocked him out in his opening match, 6-7(3), 6-2, 6-4.

Zverev had won the first-set tiebreak and looked to be settling in, but Griekspoor — whom Zverev had dominated 9-2 in their head-to-head coming in — flipped the match with a much sharper second and third set. The defeat was part of a wider collapse at the top of the men’s draw: with Auger-Aliassime also withdrawing injured before his second-round match, no member of the ATP’s top five will feature in the Montreal round of 16, something that’s happened only once before since 1990.

For Zverev, still chasing his first Grand Slam title, it’s a discouraging start to the hard-court swing that leads into the US Open, and a sign that the emotional toll of a Wimbledon final loss can linger well past the trophy ceremony.

The Common Thread

Different draws, different continents, same storyline: both Wimbledon finalists walked into Canada carrying the weight — and the target — that comes with a deep major run, and both found opponents ready to punish any letdown in intensity. With the US Open now on the horizon, both Noskova and Zverev will need to regroup quickly if they want to carry any of that Wimbledon magic into New York.