Ben Shelton defended his National Bank Open title Thursday night in Montreal, defeating fellow American Brandon Nakashima 6-3, 7-6 (4) in an all-American final to claim his seventh career ATP Tour title and become the first repeat champion in Canada since Rafael Nadal won consecutive titles there in 2019.
The 23-year-old did not drop a set throughout the tournament. The fifth seed dominated Thursday’s final in 1 hour and 27 minutes, serving at 142 miles per hour without surrendering a single break point throughout the match.
The win moves him to sixth in the world ranking. He also won titles this year in Dallas, Munich and Stuttgart before adding the Canadian title he first claimed last year in Toronto.
Nakashima, the 28th seed, won his only previous ATP title in San Diego in 2022.
How Shelton won
The serve was the defining weapon of the match, as it had been throughout the Canadian campaign. Serving at 142 mph without conceding a break point across the final means Nakashima was unable to find a foothold in either set. Once Shelton holds serve at that level, the pressure accumulates on the opponent’s service games, and Nakashima was not able to sustain the level needed to win a tiebreak on top of that accumulated deficit.
The 6-3 first set established the pattern and the 7-6 second set confirmed it. Nakashima pushed Shelton to the tiebreak, demonstrating the competitive quality that put him in the final as a 28th seed, but Shelton won it 7-4.
What the title means for Shelton
Seven ATP Tour titles at 23 puts the left-hander in the conversation about his generation’s top performers, and the pattern of his victories is significant. He has won on different surfaces and at different tiers of the calendar, demonstrating that his game is not narrowly specialized. Adding a second title at the same event in consecutive years, and achieving a result Nadal last matched in 2019, places him in selective company.
He has made himself the central story of the Canadian swing at the right moment in the calendar. His title campaign in Montreal runs directly into the Cincinnati Open, where the question will be whether he can carry this form into the final ATP 1000 event before the US Open. He enters Cincinnati as a genuine contender rather than a promising player, which is a different status than he carried into the week.
The doubles final
In the doubles final, Brazilian pair Rafael Matos and Orlando Luz defeated Croatia’s Mate Pavic and El Salvador’s Marcelo Arevalo 5-7, 6-4, 10-6. Arevalo and Pavic are both established doubles specialists with multiple major titles between them, making the Brazilian team’s victory a notable result at this level.
Shelton and the US Open ahead
The US Open begins its main draw on Aug. 30, giving Shelton and the rest of the field one more week of preparation before the final Grand Slam of the year. He enters Flushing Meadows with two hard court titles on his 2026 resume, the Dallas title from earlier in the year and now the Montreal defense, along with clay titles in Munich and Stuttgart.
His serve plays differently on hard courts than on clay, and his record at the US Open specifically has shown flashes of the level he is capable of maintaining under Grand Slam pressure. Entering the event ranked sixth in the world with recent form the Montreal title represents, Shelton goes into Flushing Meadows as someone the field will be thinking about before the draw is made.
