The final grand slam even of the tennis season, the U.S. Open, begins Monday in New York. Given recent form, the only Canadian with anything resembling a title shot is Daniel Nestor.
Nestor is on something of a roll this month, reaching the finals at the Rogers Cup in Montreal and winning the Cincinnati Masters with his new partner, Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France.
He is currently in the semi-finals at a tune-up in North Carolina with another partner, Lukasz Kubot of Poland. Nestor and Roger-Vasselin will play together in New York.
If Nestor has been hot, the Canadians in the men’s and women’s singles–Milos Raonic, seeded No 10 in New York, Vasek Pospisil, world No. 45, and Eugenie Bouchard, seeded No. 25 in New York, have been cold as ice.
Raonic, still struggling from the ill-effects a right foot injury last spring, has not won a match since Wimbledon.
Pospisil has failed to come close to repeating his success at Wimbledon, where he reached the quarterfinals.
Bouchard, who reached the Wimbledon final, the semi-finals of the Australian and French Opens, and the fourth round in New York in 2014, has been in a season-long funk.
But on Thursday, Bouchard made big news. She announced she will be working with one of tennis’s all-time greats, Jimmy Connors, at this year’s Open.
Bouchard added there are no long-term plans for Connors to continue coaching her.
Connors won eight Grand Slams from 1974-1983, including five U.S. Opens. He was the top-ranked player in the world for 160 straight weeks at one point.
Bouchard, by contrast, has lost 14 of her last 17 matches. To be fair, she has dealt with an abdominal injury during that stretch.
Stephanie Myles, who many consider the finest tennis journalist in Canada, is in New York for Yahoo Sports.
Before leaving, she joined RCI by phone from her Montreal home on Thursday night.
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