The circus that is international professional tennis arrives in Canada this weekend for the Rogers Cup. Make that the Rogers Cups.
Two tournaments, two cities and–this year–two Canadians with decent shots at winning.
For the first time since the Open Era debuted in 1968, Canadians will be among the top eight seeds in both the men’s and women’s events.
Eugenie Bouchard, the runner-up at Wimbledon and the seventh-ranked player in the world at the age of 20, comes into the women’s event in Montreal seeded fifth. Originally seeded sixth, Bouchard moved up one spot after China’s Li Na withdrew on Thursday because of knee problems.
Twenty-three-year-old Milos Raonic, who shares the same world ranking as Bouchard, is seeded sixth at the men’s event in Toronto. He moved up a notch this week after defending champion Rafael Nadal of Spain withdraw because of an injury to his right wrist.
Both Bouchard and Raonic have had excellent years on the their respective pro tours.
In addition to making Wimbledon finals, Bouchard made the semi-finals at both the Australian and French Opens.
Raonic, last year’s Rogers Cup runner-up, made the third round at the Australian, the quarter-finals at the French and the semis at Wimbledon.
How well they will do will depend on a couple of things: their respective draws and how they deal with the enormous pressure of playing at home. Bouchard is from Montreal; Raonic is from Thornhill, Ontario, not far from Toronto.
Last year in Montreal, Raonic rode a wave of crowd support to the finals, when he was blown out by Nadal. Bouchard suffered a second-round loss in Toronto to the Czech Republic’s Petra Kvitova.
The third Canadian on a lot of people’s minds is Vasek Pospisil, a 24-year-old British Columbia native who made the semi-finals in singles at last year’s Rogers Cup before losing to Raonic. In early July, he won this year’s Wimbledon men’s doubles championship with American Jack Sock.
Playing together for the first time, Pospisil and Sock defeated the doubles team that many consider the greatest ever, the California-bred Bryan twins, to win the title. Last week they won the doubles in Atlanta and are now the seventh-ranked doubles team in the world.
The pair will team up again in Toronto after Sock was given a wild-card entry into the singles.
It should be an exciting week but many in the Canadian tennis world remain miffed that the events are taking place at the same time. For years, the two tournaments were played in back-to-back weeks in alternating cities, giving Canadian tennis fans two weeks of joy.
On orders from tour officials the format changed in 2011. The result: one week, two cities, one healthy television contract.
Stephanie Myles is a long-time tennis writer in Canada. Many consider her the best around. She currently tweets at https://twitter.com/OpenCourt as well blogs at Eh Game on Yahoo! Canada Sports.
She joined me by phone from her home in Montreal with some thoughts about the tournament, Eugenie Bouchard and Milos Raonic. (Please note that because of scheduling conflicts, we spoke on Wednesday, prior to Nadal and Li Na’s withdrawals, Sock’s wild-card entry and Raonic’s singles match against Sock in Washington, won in straight sets by Raonic.)
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