Right well that's the grass court season finally over with so now its back over to the hard courts with the North American swing back into play, which starts off with the Rogers cup from Canada this week for both the men's and ladies tour, so let's have a quick look at that.
Starting with the ladies, the Rogers Cup takes place this year in Montreal, and most of the top seeds will be playing such as Victoria Azarenka, Petra Kvitova, Caroline Wozniacki, Angelique Kerber and Marion Bartoli. However last year's defending champion Serena Williams will not be playing this time as she has chosen not to compete. So this leaves this year's title up for grabs for the other seeds and anyone else who is fortunate enough to stay in. Some of the matches so far have seen one or two seeds go out already such as Jelena Jankovic, who lost to the Canadian player, Alexandra Wozniak in straight sets 6-2, 6-3, and worst of all Ana Ivanovic who suffered a double bagel rout at the hands of the Italian player, Roberta Vinci, with a crushing 6-0, 6-0 win. Most of the other top seeds are still in however, with Sam Stosur who has made it into the 3rd round after her opponent, Simona Halep retired who was trailing 5-7, 4-4. Lucie Safarova is also through after she defeated Sesil Karantantcheva 6-4, 6-4, and Sara Errani has beaten her opponent Jene Cepelova in straight sets 6-3, 6-2. Petra Kvitova had a much tougher time of it against Ksenia Pervak, but she managed to finish strong in the final set with a 4-6, 7-6, 6-0 win.
So more matches will follow on the ladies soon with Azarenka taking on the Wimbledon quarter finalist and Eastbourne champion, Tamira Paszek, Caroline Wozniacki will face Kiki Bertens, and Angelique Kerber who will face the Russian, Ekaterina Makarova. So quite a few more to go, out of all those I would quite like to see Caroline Wozniacki win through to take the title, but there quite a few heavy hitters in her way, so I can't quite see her win the title, but we will see.
However as a quick update, its good to report that Caroline Wozniacki has been playing really well in Montreal, but she has had some tough matches along the way, as she had to battle past Vervara Lepchenko of the USA, in 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, and then she overcame the home fav Alexandria Wozniak in 6-4, 6-4. However next up for Caroline will be Petra Kvitova, who has gotten back on form this week, and she has impressively been blasting her way through the opposition, as she thrashed Marion Bartoli in 6-1, 6-1, and Tamria Paszek in 6-3, 6-2. However her next match up with Caroline promises to be a really good one. Also on the other semi final match in the ladies we have Li Na take on Lucie Safarova, so on the face of it, Li Na is the favourite there but we'll see what happens. And my pick of those two would be Li Na and Petra to reach the final, either way it promises to be a good one.
Right on the men's tennis from the Rogers Cup, which is based in Toronto, as the event switches between the two cities of Montreal and Canada each year for the men's and ladies events. Novak Djokovic is the defending champion, however he will face some stern resistance in his way before he can defend his title sucessfully, as he will have to face some big hitters as well, such as Sam Querrey, and maybe even John Isner or Tomas Berdych in the final. However of the other top 10 seeds that are in the tournament, or rather where, they are three casualties, the first two were Juan Martin Del Potro and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Del Potro faced Radek Stepanek, and big Delpo was clearly feeling the effects of his efforts at the Olympics, and ended up losing in 4-6, 6-7. Tsonga also went out to his fellow Frenchman, Jeremy Chardy also in straight sets again in 4-6, 6-7 (popular score!) as he felt the fatigue of his efforts at the Olympics as well. And finally we had Andy Murray who after his victory over the Italian player, Flavio Cipolla, decided to withdraw from the tournament due to a knee injury, which he incurred after chasing down a ball in the 2nd set of his match.
So this leaves the draw a bit more wide open for Djokovic, as he now has no Murray, Tsonga, Del Potro, or even Federer (who chose not to compete anyway) to face. Perhaps the lack of competition from those seeds might be a disappointment for Djokovic, but perhaps also a relief, especially as he is just fresh off two defeats at the hands of Andy and Delpo. And can Djokovic can defend his title??? Yep I think he can, and I'm sure he will more than eager to, as it will give him a much needed boost after suffering recent losses at the French Open, Wimbledon and the Olympics. And now that Djokovic is back on hard court, he will feel more at home, so it will still be a tough draw for him to get to, but he has already gotten past Beranrd Tomic with a convincing win in 6-2, 6-3, so he looks to be making a good start.
As for Andy Murray, well I'm a bit surprised he decided to go to Toronto to play so soon after the Olympics anyway, as he had played alot of matches there, so naturally you would expect him to be suffering from a few niggles. And right enough it turned out to be the case where Andy had sustained a knee injury during the Cipolla match, but he definitely has made the right decision to withdraw from Toronto, as the last thing he wants to do is further damage to his body. And with the US Open coming up I'm sure Andy will want to be in peak condition for the final slam of the season, so he would be wise to rest up. However next up on the ATP tour will be the Cincinnati Masters, or the Western and Southern Open as its known over there, which Andy is the defending champion of. So whether or not he is ready to compete there or not we will soon find out, but the main priority for him is obviously to get fit and ready for the US Open. But playing in Cincinnati would be his last window of preparation for playing at the US Open, unless there are some exhibition matches he can play prior to going to Flushing Meadows. And of course the transition from grass to hard court will be tough for players, especially as hard court is tougher on players bodies, especially in the arms and leg joints. Anyway in the meantime, let's hope Andy's knee injury is nothing serious and that he will be fit and well to play in Cincinnati or more importantly at the US Open. Most likely however I'm sure if he isn't fit enough to play next week in Cincinnati, he will do all he can to be fit for Flushing Meadows.
Sooooo that's it for now, more to follow soon!
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