The Coupe Rogers in Montreal will be without two of the game’s biggest stars as both Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin del Potro announced on Thursday that they will miss the ATP Masters 1000 event, which begins 4 August.

Djokovic, a four-time Coupe Rogers champion, needs more time to recover after winning his fifth Wimbledon title on 14 July. The World No. 1 beat Roger Federer 7-6(5), 1-6, 7-6(4), 4-6, 13-12(3) in the first fifth-set tie-break in Wimbledon singles history.

The Serbian saved two match points against Federer, becoming the first player to save match points in the Wimbledon final and win in 71 years.

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“I’m sorry to announce that I decided to pull out of Coupe Rogers. With the support of my team, I have decided to give my body longer rest and recovery time before coming back again to play,” Djokovic said.

“I love Canada and I have many friends there that always make me feel like I’m at home, and I’m looking forward to coming back again to play in front of all of you in Montreal.”

Djokovic has won the event, which alternates between Montreal and Toronto, twice in both city: Montreal in 2007 and 2011, and Toronto in 2012 and 2016. He fell in the third round last year to #NextGenATP Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, who made his maiden ATP Masters 1000 final in Toronto (l. to Nadal).

Del Potro is continuing his rehab from a fractured right kneecap that he suffered on 19 June during his second-round match at the Fever-Tree Championships in London. The Argentine, No. 12 in the ATP Rankings, underwent surgery on 22 June.

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“We would have loved for Djokovic to have the chance to be crowned champion for a third time in Montreal, but we understand his decision and we wish him a quick return for the rest of the season,” said Eugene Lapierre, Tournament Director of the Coupe Rogers in Montreal.

“In Del Potro’s case, we wish him a speedy recovery, he who has experienced his share of injuries in the past few years. We look forward to seeing him back on court in the near future.”

Defending champion Rafael Nadal, the all-time Masters 1000 titles leader (34), will be the top seed. Frenchman Richard Gasquet and Mikhail Kukushkin will fill the two available spots in the main draw.

Top seed and 2018 finalist Roberto Bautista Agut held off the leader of the next wave of Spanish tennis players, Jaume Munar, on Thursday at the J. Safra Sarasin Swiss Open Gstaad. Bautista Agut saved two of his three break points and overcame the 21-year-old Munar 7-6(6), 6-4 during the second FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting between the two Spaniards (2-0).

Munar competed at the 2018 Next Gen ATP Finals among the world’s best 21-and-under players and reached the semi-finals in Milan. Bautista Agut, who is playing in his first ATP Tour tournament since reaching the Wimbledon semi-finals, his first at the Grand Slam level, will next meet fifth seed Joao Sousa of Portugal.

Sousa notched a steady 6-4, 6-4 win against qualifier Gian Marco Moroni of Italy, saving both break points faced in the second set. Before Wimbledon, Sousa hadn’t won two tour-level matches in a row since the Miami Open presented by Itau in March. But the 30-year-old made the fourth round at SW19, the quarter-finals at the Swedish Open in Bastad last week and is into his second quarter-final of the season in Gstaad.

It may have lasted one hour longer than he’d hoped, but Dusan Lajovic let out a big sigh of relief on after he extended his winning streak to six matches. The Serbian beat Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 6-4, 6-7(2), 7-6(2) over two hours and 23 minutes, but last week’s Plava Laguna Croatian Open Umag champion endured several momentum shifts for his 18th victory of a career-best season.

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Lajovic led by a set and 5-1, and held a match point opportunity on his serve at 5-3, when a deep backhand return from Istomin caught the third seed off guard. Lajovic later recovered from 3-5 down in the decider, but failed to convert two more match points at 6-5 courtesy of a solid serve and backhand volley winner from Istomin. The 29-year-old eventually closed out with a volley winner and turned to his team, shaking his head, in relief.

“It was very tough,” said Lajovic. “I have everything under control and then everything changed. He started putting more balls into the court, putting pressure on me and I got really tight. I was unable to win the second set and at the end, he was the better player and should have won, but I managed to turn it around and in the tie-break I was lucky. I’m happy that I won somehow and I will try to recover for tomorrow.”

Last week, Lajovic lifted his first ATP Tour trophy in Umag (d. Balazs), three months on from reaching the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters final (l. to Fognini). He will now look to sufficiently recover to play seventh-seeded Spaniard Pablo Andujar, the 2014 champion, on Friday. Andujar also battled back in the third set, from 1-3 down, to beat Taro Daniel of Japan 6-1, 3-6, 7-6(2) in two hours and 21 minutes.

Alexander Zverev overcame an up-and-down performance on Thursday to reach his eighth quarter-final of 2019 at the Hamburg European Open.

Zverev broke at 5-5 in the second set with aggressive play from the baseline, but the second seed was broken to love while serving for the match at 6-5. Zverev, however, recovered with a consistent tie-break to beat Argentine Federico Delbonis 6-4, 7-6(5).

“I don’t think I played a bad game. I think he played an amazing game, the best game he played of the match. So mostly it was fine,” Zverev said of the 6-5 game in the second set. “The most important thing is that I won the tie-break afterwards quite easily. You will always have games where you lose and games where you get broken, and it’s how you come back from that and I did well today.”

The World No. 5 is playing at his home ATP 500 tournament for the first time since 2016, when he fell in the first round. The 2014 semi-finalist will next meet Filip Krajinovic.

The Serbian hit 12 aces in a 6-7(6), 7-5, 6-1 win over 2016 champion Martin Klizan, who recovered from 1-4 and 3-5 down to win the first set. Krajinovic won the last six games of the match.

Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta knocked out seventh seed Jan-Lennard Struff 6-1, 7-6(4) in 85 minutes. Struff served for the second set at 5-3. Carreno Busta will next meet the winner between third seed Fabio Fognini and #NextGenATP German Rudolf Molleker.

Reilly Opelka defeated Stan Wawrinka on Wednesday at Wimbledon to reach the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time. The victory was also his first five-set win. The 21-year-old is enjoying a breakout season that sees him projected to surpass his career-high ATP Ranking of No. 53 when the newest standings are released.

Read Opelka Hangs Tough To Edge Wawrinka

ATPTour.com takes a look at five things to know about the American.

1. He Already Has A Wimbledon Crown
Opelka is making his Wimbledon debut as a pro, but he’s no stranger to The All England Club. He beat Mikael Ymer to win his only junior Grand Slam title in 2015.

2. His 2019 Season Includes An ATP Tour Title
The American clinched his maiden trophy this February at the New York Open by defeating Brayden Schnur in a third-set tie-break. He also saved six match points against John Isner in a thrilling semi-final clash. Opelka finished the week with 156 aces, including 43 in the championship match, and closed out the tournament with 68 consecutive service holds.

“This Five Things To Know About Reilly Opelka is definitely what I’m most proud of,” said Opelka. “I was tough mentally, especially losing a lot of first sets this week, and my first serve really helped me out. I was able to play clutch in those big moments.“

3. Opelka Is Part Of The “Triple Towers”
At 6’11”, Opelka joins Ivo Karlovic (6’11”) and Isner (6’10”) as the three tallest players on the ATP Tour. The trio also posed for a photo two years ago that could have passed for an NBA roster.

4. He Gets Mistaken For Isner
Not all tall people look alike, but Opelka finds himself frequently mistaken for the other American giant in tennis. He told ESPN that fans came up to him in France and asked for autographs thinking he was Isner.

“That one I had to play along with,” joked Opelka. He admitted to intentionally spelling Isner’s name wrong at times and signing for fans as “Jon”.

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5. Opelka Graduated From Challengers
Opelka set up his solid 2019 season with a dominant run last year on the ATP Challenger Tour. He finished the year with back-to-back Challenger titles in the United States and reached the championship match in four of his last six Challenger events.

“Last year was huge for me,” reflected Opelka. “It was the first time I consistently put together a lot of matches in a row. I reached a lot of semi-finals and I think the year before there wasn’t one week where I had won three matches in a row. Being able to play on the Challenger Tour and not as many ATP Tour events, helped me string all those matches together. It gave me a lot of confidence and I learned a lot about myself and my tennis. It allowed me to work on some things that I knew needed to be addressed.”

There were 64 aces, five break points saved and one upset of a five-time BB&T Atlanta Open champion.

American Reilly Opelka beat countryman John Isner for the third time this season on Wednesday, giving the top seed his earliest Atlanta exit in 10 appearances 7-6(2), 6-7(5), 7-6(5).

Opelka saved three break points while serving at 4-5 in the third set, including two consecutively from 15/40 as he served his way out of trouble. The 21-year-old American also beat Isner at the Australian Open and en route to his maiden ATP Tour title at the New York Open in February.

“I was clutch on big moments in the match. First-set tie-break I played unbelievable, pretty much flawless, hit some great shots,” Opelka said. “John is just so consistent with his serve. It’s so hard to play three tie-breaks with him because there’s just so much pressure, there’s so much stress for three hours straight. It’s tough. I’m thrilled to get through.”

Isner was the two-time defending champion and had reached the Atlanta final in nine of his 10 appearances. He also made the 2012 semi-final. The World No. 14 won his fourth Hall of Fame Open title on the Newport grass on Sunday.

“It’s his tournament. It always will be. Definitely a tough guy to beat in Atlanta,” Opelka said. “I’m really happy that I was able to find a way to win.”

Their New York Open semi-final featured a record number of aces (81) for an ATP Tour three-set match, and while they fell short of a new mark, to the surprise of no one, the mammoth serves of the 6’10” Isner and the 6’11” Opelka dominated play.

Opelka didn’t lose a first-serve point in the opener (17/17), but Isner rallied in the tie-break to force a decider. The top seed saved two match points on his serve from 3/6 in the third-set tie-break. But Opelka had to do more than serve to finish off the crowd favourite.

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Isner returned a second serve well and came in strong behind a forehand approach. But Opelka let loose on a backhand pass and followed it up with a forehand winner for his third win in four tries against Isner in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. Eleven of their 13 sets have been decided by tie-breaks, including all 10 this year, seven of which have been won by Opelka.

The 2016 Atlanta quarter-finalist will next face Brit Daniel Evans, who saved 15 of 19 break points against Moldovan Radu Albot to advance 7-6(5), 5-7, 6-2. Evans also overcame 10 double faults to reach his third tour-level quarter-final of 2019 (Delray Beach, Eastbourne).

#NextGenATP Aussie Alexei Popyrin beat fourth seed Pierre-Hugues Herbert 7-5, 6-3 to make his first tour-level quarter-final. The 19-year-old Sydney native saved all six break points and will meet Brit Cameron Norrie, who eased past South Korean qualifier Soonwoo Kwon 6-3, 6-4.

Popyrin is currently in 11^th place in the ATP Race To Milan, which will determine seven of the eight players who will compete at the Next Gen ATP Finals, to be held 5-9 November in Milan. The eighth spot is reserved for an Italian wild card.