By Mike McIntyre
The tennis world turns its attention towards Canada this week as the summer hardcourt swing kicks into high gear with stops for the men in Montreal and the women in Toronto at the Rogers Cup. Sure there have been tournaments on this surface already in Atlanta, Washington and Stanford on the ATP and WTA Tours, but this is where all of the best players in the world (minus a few injury/Federer withdrawals) are gathered to show who the front-runner will be for the final Grand Slam of the year. Yes, the U.S. Open is only a few weeks away and the winners in Canada's two largest cities will be the first to show they are ready for New York.
ProTennisFan is in Toronto for WTA action and therefore here is our preview for what lies ahead in the Big Smoke.
Serena Williams is the number one seed and also happens to be the last winner of the WTA event in Toronto when it was here in 2013. Serena currently holds all four Grand Slam titles and is clearly not in the sharing mood. If her elbow that kept her out of Stanford this past week is healed-up then she is going to be tough to beat in a city where she is already accustomed to being crowned champion. Serena opens with a first round bye and will then face the winner between Canadian Gabby Dabrowski (gold medalist in doubles at the recent Pan Am Games) and Italian Flavia Pennetta the 16th seed. The road for Serena to claim the title in Toronto is not an easy one. While she owns a 6-0 record against her likely second round opponent Pennetta, she could then face Andrea Petkovic in the 3rd round and either Lucie Safarova or Sam Stosur in the quarter-finals. While she is a combined 21-3 against those last three players, she hasn't played on hardcourts in a while and all of them are capable opponents.
Other players in the top half of the draw to look out for include 4th seeded Caroline Wozniacki who won in Canada in 2010 and 5th seeded Ana Ivanovic who in 2006. Big first round matches in this half of the draw involve the Monday night tilt between big servers Venus Williams and Sabine Lisicki as well as the Tuesday night marquee battle between Canadian No. 1 Genie Bouchard and 18 year old rising star Belinda Bencic. Can Genie turn her season around now that she has dumped coach Sam Sumyk? I wouldn't get my hopes up but it sure would be nice for Genie to get a couple of wins and perhaps a reprieve from the Canadian Press who have been pretty tough on the 21 year old this year.
Without Maria Sharapova (right leg) in the tournament it is up to Simona Halep to carry the number two seed. Her first opponent will be the winner between Caroline Garcia and former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic. Halep could get Stanford winner Angelique Kerber next followed by number 6 seed and 2014 champion from Montreal, Aga Radwanska. Wimbledon runner-up Garbine Muguruza is the 8th seed and is also in this half of the draw along with third seed and two-time Wimbledon champ Petra Kvitova. The best match in the opening round to check-out in this section is certainly Dominika Cibulkova (QF in 2013, F in 2008) vs Sloane Stephens who just claimed her first WTA title in D.C. at the Citi Open. Lookout for Victoria Azarenka who is unseeded and could face Kvitova in the 2nd round. She is due for a big breakthrough that will finally send her up into the rankings where she belongs.
Tough to predict who we might see standing on semi-final Saturday but I'm going with Serena vs Wozniacki and Azarenka vs Radwanska. I will go so far as to say that I think Azarenka will triumph over Serena for the first time since the summer of 2013 which will set the stage for some nice fodder for the press ahead of the U.S. Open. When you look at players that could potentially deny Serena from winning the calendar year Grand Slam, I think Azarenka leads the pack.
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