Canadian Open tournament director says he's requested rule change in tennis after incident in Toronto this year

It was Ben Shelton who emerged victorious in Toronto, lifting his maiden Masters 1000 title.

Event organizers were disappointed by Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, and Novak Djokovic’s withdrawals from the Canadian Open, but were left smiling after the young American put on a show in Toronto.

Searching for his maiden Masters crown, Shelton took down the likes of Flavio Cobolli, Alex de Minaur, and Taylor Fritz en route to the final.

There, Shelton defeated Karen Khachanov, 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, to win the Canadian Open title.

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The 22-year-old was a class above all tournament, especially during Shelton’s semifinal win over Fritz.

Reflecting on the tournament and that match in particular, the Canadian Open tournament director requested a rule change after an incident occurred before the semifinal.

Karl Hale wants change to electronic line calling rules after semifinal incident in Toronto

As Shelton and Fritz were warming up for their semifinal match in Toronto, they were sent to the back as the match was postponed.

The match was delayed due to a problem with the electronic line-calling system, as the players were made to wait 20 minutes before the technology began working correctly.

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Appearing as a guest on ‘The Slice Tennis’, tournament director Karl Hale explained why ‘human’ line judges weren’t used as a replacement, as he revealed the rule change he’s requested for the future.

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“I just sent one over today,” he said.

“We had an issue with electronic line calling, and the players had to walk off the court. They would not go back on because the rule is that if you can’t start the match without electronic line calling, to put line umpires on.

“If you play one point and it goes down, you can bring on the lines people, but you can’t start the match like that.

“The challenge is that if you have a stadium of 15,000 people and five million watching TV, it doesn’t make any sense that you just don’t throw them out there in the spirit of the rule to support the fans, in-house and on broadcast.”

Fans became agitated in Toronto, as they were made to wait for the start of the second semifinal match.

Eventually, it was Shelton who emerged victorious when they returned, defeating his countryman in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3.

Hale will be hoping for a rule change to prevent such a delay in the future, but what else can we expect from the 2026 Canadian Open?

2026 Canadian Open: Location, line-up, and rule changes

As usual, the men’s and women’s events will switch locations for next year’s Canadian Open.

The women will return to Toronto, while the men head over to Montreal.

We will likely see some bigger names take to the court in Montreal, as Hale hopes to avoid a repeat of the 2025 withdrawals next year.

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“Okay, we are here in 2026,” Hale said to Sinner and Alcaraz.

“You’re going to be in Montreal. And just make sure that happens!’ I am very, very confident that they will be in Montreal next year.”

In total, 18 players withdrew from this year’s Canadian Open, including four top-ten players.

Rank Name Replaced by 1 Jannik Sinner Roberto Carballes Baena 2 Carlos Alcaraz Hugo Dellien 5 Jack Draper Sebastian Ofner 6 Novak Djokovic Roman Safiullin 15 Tommy Paul Borna Coric 20 Grigor Dimitrov Juncheng Shang 23 Ugo Humbert Terence Atmane 25 Alexander Bublik Pablo Carreno Busta 33 Sebastian Korda Christopher O’Connell 35 Luciano Darderi Dalibor Svrcina 37 Hubert Hurkacz Vit Kopriva 44 Jordan Thompson Aleksandar Kovacevic 45 Sebastian Baez Aleksandar Vukic 53 Roberto Bautista Agut Hugo Gaston 57 Matteo Berrettini Yoshihito Nishioka 67 Kei Nishikori Mackenzie McDonald 70 Laslo Djere Jason Tseng 73 Hamad Medjedovic Ethan Quinn 2025 Canadian Open withdrawals

If that number is reduced in 2026, tournament officials will undoubtedly be pleased.

There may also be rule changes implemented, such as the adaptation to the electronic line calling procedure, as mentioned by Hale.

Only time will tell what the 2026 Canadian Open tournament will be like, but you certainly won’t want to miss any of the action when the event begins next summer.

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