ATP Montreal coverage

An even, close final in Montreal between new #2 Andy Murray and Juan Martin del Potro turned into a rout by the third set, as the lanky Argentine wilted in the hot summer weather to give the Scot the win by the score of 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 6-1.  You know what they say: if you can't take the heat, get out of Canada.

It was a great match for two sets, with Murray frustrated by del Potro's big hitting early and often.  del Potro really seemed to expose a weakness with Murray's forehand return (or lack thereof), a deficiency Darren Cahill blamed on Murray always preparing to return serve with his backhand grip.  If you have a grip for return that doesn't work on both backhand and forehand, that's problematic.  How Murray can't find a more versatile one or adjust escapes me.

But Murray battled through, with del Potro clearly struggling, even calling for the trainer at 6-5 in the second, which is about as bizarre timing as you'll ever see for that.  By the time the third set rolled around, the engraver already had gotten Murray's name on the trophy, with del Potro only managing nine games in the decider.

With this win in Montreal, one in which he was favored in every round, the stage now seems completely set for Murray to make a big run at the US Open.  He'll most likely be on opposite sides of the draw from Roger Federer, with those two favored to make it a rematch of last year's final.  How he does against a Roddick, del Potro, or Nadal that he runs into before the final will be interesting to see.

For del Potro, the outlook is more mixed coming out of Montreal.  He proved that he can beat big players (Roddick, Nadal) consistently on hard courts, but he also proved he doesn't always do so efficiently enough to conserve energy, and may not have the endurance to do it over seven matches in a best-of-five format.  del Potro has already withdrawn from Cincinnati citing exhaustion, and that's only after two weeks of three-setters.  How he holds up will be one of the stories to keep an eye on come US Open time.

Two matches that could both be pretty good (or that could both be blowouts), on the card for Sunday. 

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Two good looking match ups (Roddick vs. del Potro & Dementieva vs. Jankovic) on the card at the big ATP and WTA events Saturday, as well as two that should be fairly lopsided (Murray vs. Tsonga & Safina vs. Pennetta).

Any and all thoughts on the day's action as it rolls along can go right here in the comments.

ATP Montreal coverage

It's not often Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic all crash out of a tournament on the same day.   The trio, who had made up the top three for over a year and (all still reside in the top four), were sent home by the #5, #6, and #7 players in the world in the quarterfinal round of Montreal.

#1 Roger Federer suffered an unprecedented complete collapse in his match vs. #7 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.  Federer led 5-1 in the third set, up two breaks, before inexplicably falling apart and hitting error after error and double fault after double fault to give Tsonga the match 7-6(5), 1-6, 7-6(3). 

Tsonga is a dangerous player who test anyone in the game when at his peak, but this loss was all Federer's doing by the end.  The only explanation I can come up with is that the effort was an homage to the Hantuchova-Zvonareva scoreline from the day before.

#4 Novak Djokovic crashed out to #5 Andy Roddick in an installment of their once bitter rivalry that was marred by good sportsmanship, for a change. 

Having dropped the first set 6-4, Djokovic seemingly held for a 4-1 advantage but suggested that Roddick challenge a ball that had been called out on game point.  Roddick did, and the ball was indeed in, resetting the score to 3-1 and giving the American #1 a new lease on life.  Roddick went on to break in that game to get the set back on serve, and eventually won the match in the tiebreak,  6-4, 7-6(4).

As a #4 vs. #5 match, this should have been the least surprising of the three upsets on paper.  But it was surprising the way Roddick won it, more by outplaying Djokovic from the ground than with the serve.  Djokovic made error after error on the forehand side, sending balls long down the middle of the court at seemingly neutral points in rallies.

Roddick can over take Djokovic in the rankings at the US Open.  Based on current form, he certainly deserves to.

And in the final match of the day, #2 Rafael Nadal was worn down by #6 Juan Martin del Potro, 7-6(5), 6-1.

del Potro, who is now riding a ten-match win streak on hard courts since Wimbledon, pummeled the defending Rogers Cup champion with his huge forehand, hitting line after line. 

Nadal probably wouldn't have beaten del Potro on hard courts at peak health, and it was clear in this match that he's not all the way back yet, in terms of shot-making more than movement.

The only favorite who did manage to win Friday in Montreal was Andy Murray, who was never tested by #8 Nikolay Davydenko.  Should Murray win his semifinal vs. Tsonga, he will replace Nadal as #2, becoming the first player besides Nadal or Federer to occupy a top two slot since mid-2005. 

No pressure.

For the first time in ATP history, the top eight players in the rankings are the eight quarterfinalists at a tournament.  The ATP #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, and #8 are all still in action on Friday, which should make for an incredible day of tennis.

#1 Roger Federer faces #7 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in what looks to be the most lopsided.  But Montreal's courts play fairly similarly to the courts at the Australian Open, where Tsonga made the final in 2008.  Federer should get through this one comfortably, but Tsonga is known to surprise.

#2 Rafael Nadal, having played only one full match since the French Open, takes on #6 Juan Martin del Potro, who has won nine straight matches including last week's Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington.  del Potro beat Nadal on hard courts Miami earlier in the year, but Nadal looked considerably sharper in the second round against Philipp Petzschner than del Potro did against Victor Hanescu.

#3 Andy Murray gets the lowest ranked opponent in #8 Nikolay Davydenko, a match-up that might look easier on paper for Murray than it should.  Davydenko has actually won the last two hard court matches between the two in straight sets, with wins in Dubai and Shanghai last year.  Davydenko has won two tournaments since Wimbledon (Hamburg and Umag), and Murray hasn't been tested yet in Montreal.  If Murray comes out of the blocks slowly in this first match of the day, he could be in for a rough afternoon.

The match with the most guaranteed fireworks is the one in prime time, as #4 Novak Djokovic takes on #5 Andy Roddick in another installment of their heated rivalry.  Djokovic won the Rogers Cup the last time it was held in Montreal in 2007.  That year he beat Roddick in the quarterfinals, Nadal in the semifinals, and Federer in the final, a sequence he could repeat in 2009.  Djokovic and Roddick have played two contentious matches in slams recently, with Djokovic getting into it with the New York crowd at the US Open in 2008, and dropping out of their Australian Open quarterfinal this year once Roddick was up two sets to one with a break.  This one should not only have some good tennis, but it's a pretty solid bet for drama as well.

Same poll question as yesterday, but the answer is a lot less likely to be "None of the Above" this time around.

My money is on Nadal--how's about you?

After facing fairly unproven opponents in their first matches, the top four players in the world all face significantly tougher tests in their second matches in Montreal, in what is for each of them the first tournament since Wimbledon.

In his second match since Wimbledon and becoming a father, #1 Roger Federer faces countryman Stanislas Wawrinka, with whom he won the gold medal in doubles for Switzerland at the Beijing Olympics a year ago this week.  Wawrinka defeated Federer in their last match, in Monte Carlo, and has more matches under his belt since Wimbledon than the top Swiss, who in Wawrinka is facing his first opponent inside the top 400 since Wimbledon.

The player who goes into Thursday the least proven is #2 Rafael Nadal, who only had to play seven games against David Ferrer before Ferrer dropped out of the match due to knee tendinitis, the same ailment that kept Nadal out of Wimbledon.  Nadal faces Philipp Petzschner, who, while not a household name, already registered nice victories in Montreal over US Open Series leader Sam Querrey and #15 seed Tommy Robredo.  Petzschner hits the ball as hard as anybody, and won't give Nadal a ton of balls to look at if he's firing well.

After easing through Jeremy Chardy, #3 Andy Murray faces Juan Carlos Ferrero, who has already survived Lleyton Hewitt and Gael Monfils to make the third round, matchups that should serve the Spaniard well in preparing for Murray.  Murray crushed Ferrero in their quarterfinal at Wimbledon, but Ferrero has looked sharp in his hard court wins so far in Washington and Montreal, and has significantly more matches under his belt in the last month than Murray, whose main competition between Wimbledon and Montreal came at County Week in Eastbourne.

#4 Novak Djokovic looked unimpressive at best in his 6-4, 7-6(6) victory over wild card Peter Polansky in the first round, having to save a set point against the unheralded Canadian before winning in straights.  Djokovic faces former US Open semifinalist Mikhail Youzhny in his Thursday match, perhaps drawing the easiest opponent of any of the top four.  But Djokovic has looked anything but his former self in 2009, and is in danger of being ousted from the top four by Andy Roddick at the US Open if his results don't improve.

Most of the matches outside the top four look pretty juicy as well.  Roddick-Verdasco, Tsonga-Simon, and Davydenko-Gonzalez are all too close to call, in my mind.  The only clunker should be del Potro-Hanescu, which the Argentine should win easily if his mind is in it from the get-go.

So with rust and possible injury in mind, the question is: which of the four do you think is most likely to lose Thursday?

Of the countries that host important tennis tournaments, few have less of a chance of producing a hometown singles champion than Canada (though the Monegasque are even less likely to produce a local winner in Monte Carlo).   Daniel Nestor is about as good a doubles player as you can find, but in singles the pickings are decidedly slimmer.  Aleksandra Wozniak has recently planted herself in the top 30 on the women's side, but the men don't currently have anyone in the top 100.

Despite their apparent lack of contenders to make noise at the Rogers Cup in Montreal, all three Canadians in action Tuesday impressed against quality opponents.

The eldest of the Canadians, Frederic Niemayer, got the unenviable draw of Roger Federer in the second round, in the Swiss's first match back from paternity leave.  Niemayer had already won a round in the main draw of Montreal (against free-falling Igor Kunitsyn), and played admirably against Federer, pushing the world #1 to 7-6(3), 6-4.

Peter Polansky, the other Canadian in second round action Tuesday, also went down in straight sets to a top foe, losing 6-4, 7-6(6) to #4 Novak Djokovic.  Polansky responded to the stage admirably, but really this match was about Djokovic looking awful in his first match since Wimbledon.  Djokovic can play his way into an event and gain form as it goes along, but he looked extremely unimpressive and vulnerable against Polansky, who is currently outside the top 200.  Djokovic shouldn't run into any tests until Roddick in the quarterfinal, a match Roddick should dominate based on recent form.

The most impressive Canadian on Tuesday was 18-year old Milos Raonic (right), who got a wild card into qualifying where he beat Teimuraz Gabashvili and Michael Llodra.  Raonic took advantage of a somewhat unsuspecting Fernando Gonzalez early in the match, taking the first set 6-4, and even having a match point in the second set tiebreak before Gonzalez recovered to win 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-4.  Raonic never looked rattled at any point in the match, even after missing out on his match point, a lack of short term memory that should continue to serve him well in tennis. 

While there were a lot of positives to take away from Raonic's game (incredible fearlessness, big serve), there are definitely things he needs to improve if he's going to be the player to put Canadian tennis on the map.

The main concern with Raonic's game is his volleys, which were frankly pretty awful.  Plenty of players aren't tremendous volleyers, but Raonic had a bigger penchant for coming to net than most players of his volleying caliber.  In the long run he needs to work on strengthening his volleys, but in the short run he needs to stop coming to net on crucial points, because the way he blew point after point up there was cringe-worthy.

Speaking of Canadian tennis, I got the chance to sit down with Canadian #1 Frank Dancevic (who ran into a wall of Gilles Simon in his first match in Montreal) last week during the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington.   We talked one-on-one about the state of Canadian tennis, his game, and how his career would have been different had he been born just a few miles away on the other side of Niagara Falls.  That interview should be up (in a few parts) in the near future, so keep an eye out for it.