Going into the 139th edition of the Rogers Cup, there was a palpable sense of anticipation and excitement surrounding Canadian tennis and their prospects. Predominantly, this was due to the staggering success of teenage starlets Felix Auger-Aliassime and, in particular Bianca Andreescu; the former making his first professional appearance in the city where he was born and raised. For the Canadian contingent fortunes were mixed; unfortunately apt for a nation that has so far been nearly but not quite there throughout tennis history.
As well as the slickly acronymed FAA, hopes rested on the shoulders of Milos Raonic and Denis Shapovalov, with the respective outcomes being depressingly familiar for the pair. Like Kyrgios and controversy, Raonic and injuries are a tennis combination that will seemingly never go away; a back issue abruptly curtailing what could have been a blockbuster final set shoot-out against FAA himself on centre court. As for Shapo, who had been as woefully out of form as he’d ever been since bursting onto the scene at this tournament two years ago, signs of the old phenom were visible in how he both dismantled first round opponent Pierre-Hugues Herbert and set about the challenge of freshly anointed world number 4 Dominic Thiem. However, 2019 model Shapo reared his ugly head at just the wrong moments; gifting the Austrian the crucial third set break with a shockingly shanked overhead. Raonic’s misfortune only presented Auger-Aliassime with the indignity of being defeated by a Russian on his birthday for the second year running (Karen Khachanov this year, Daniil Medvedev twelve months prior in Toronto), in a match that was cagey to say the least, and one of many to be decided by unforced error rather than winner count.
In terms of affinities with tournaments, clay events such as Monte-Carlo, Barcelona or Roland Garros spring to mind when thinking ofRafael Nadal. Yet a lesser-known one for him is the Rogers Cup; his crushing 6-3 6-0 victory over Daniil Medvedev sealed his fifth title on Canadian soil. The notable absence of 2/3 of the Big Three would imply that there was an air of expected inevitability about this triumph, but Rafa definitely did not have it all his own way this week. Two matches in particular proved contrasting yet demanding challenges; his 2nd round encounter with Dan Evans and quarter-final clash with Fabio Fognini. Evans made a real nuisance of himself with tactics straight out of the hard court specialist’s manual – taking the ball early and mixing it up with slices and net approaches to take Nadal out of his rhythm; nearly stealing the first set from under him in the process. In terms of Fognini, the first set (which Fognini steamed 6-2) perfectly proved the hypothesis that tennis is all about match-ups. Despite having a 75% head-to-head record, Nadal often looks most vulnerable against the mercurial Italian, highlighted by the 2015 US Open shock and the more recently jarring 6-4 6-1 defeat at this year’s Monte-Carlo. Rafa made 14 unforced errors in this set, more than he usually makes through the course of an entire match, but it is testament to his tennis IQ that he took these punches and trusted his gameplan, while Fognini’s (hitting as many scorching winners as possible) subsequently crumbled in front of him.
Going into the 139th edition of the Rogers Cup, there was a palpable sense of anticipation and excitement surrounding Canadian tennis and their prospects. Predominantly, this was due to the staggering success of teenage starlets Felix Auger-Aliassime and, in particular Bianca Andreescu; the former making his first professional appearance in the city where he was born and raised. For the Canadian contingent fortunes were mixed; unfortunately apt for a nation that has so far been nearly but not quite there throughout tennis history.
As well as the slickly acronymed FAA, hopes rested on the shoulders of Milos Raonic and Denis Shapovalov, with the respective outcomes being depressingly familiar for the pair. Like Kyrgios and controversy, Raonic and injuries are a tennis combination that will seemingly never go away; a back issue abruptly curtailing what could have been a blockbuster final set shoot-out against FAA himself on centre court. As for Shapo, who had been as woefully out of form as he’d ever been since bursting onto the scene at this tournament two years ago, signs of the old phenom were visible in how he both dismantled first round opponent Pierre-Hugues Herbert and set about the challenge of freshly anointed world number 4 Dominic Thiem. However, 2019 model Shapo reared his ugly head at just the wrong moments; gifting the Austrian the crucial third set break with a shockingly shanked overhead. Raonic’s misfortune only presented Auger-Aliassime with the indignity of being defeated by a Russian on his birthday for the second year running (Karen Khachanov this year, Daniil Medvedev twelve months prior in Toronto), in a match that was cagey to say the least, and one of many to be decided by unforced error rather than winner count.
In terms of affinities with tournaments, clay events such as Monte-Carlo, Barcelona or Roland Garros spring to mind when thinking ofRafael Nadal. Yet a lesser-known one for him is the Rogers Cup; his crushing 6-3 6-0 victory over Daniil Medvedev sealed his fifth title on Canadian soil. The notable absence of 2/3 of the Big Three would imply that there was an air of expected inevitability about this triumph, but Rafa definitely did not have it all his own way this week. Two matches in particular proved contrasting yet demanding challenges; his 2nd round encounter with Dan Evans and quarter-final clash with Fabio Fognini. Evans made a real nuisance of himself with tactics straight out of the hard court specialist’s manual – taking the ball early and mixing it up with slices and net approaches to take Nadal out of his rhythm; nearly stealing the first set from under him in the process. In terms of Fognini, the first set (which Fognini steamed 6-2) perfectly proved the hypothesis that tennis is all about match-ups. Despite having a 75% head-to-head record, Nadal often looks most vulnerable against the mercurial Italian, highlighted by the 2015 US Open shock and the more recently jarring 6-4 6-1 defeat at this year’s Monte-Carlo. Rafa made 14 unforced errors in this set, more than he usually makes through the course of an entire match, but it is testament to his tennis IQ that he took these punches and trusted his gameplan, while Fognini’s (hitting as many scorching winners as possible) subsequently crumbled in front of him.
Aside from Nadal and his dominance, there was no shortage of weird and wonderful matches in Montreal this week. Local hero Peter Polansky played out of his skin to nearly upset Gael Monfils – the Frenchman’s semi-final showing displaying just how impressive Polansky’s performance was. On the flip side, Alexander Zverev and Nikoloz Basilashvili conducted possibly the worst match of 2019, coughing up 105 unforced errors between them in three sets. Nonetheless, the extent of this unpredictability made it as enthralling as it was baffling, not doubt giving any average club player hope of a career on the ATP tour. Daniil Medvedev continued where he had left off in Washington, despite “nearly choking” (his own words) in the 2nd set tiebreak of his semi-final against Karen Khachanov. His thumping at the hands of Nadal should not be surprising nor condemning – both due to the unfavourable contrast of styles and Medvedev’s total lack of big-match experience against the top three. There is no doubt that his time in the Masters winners circle will come.
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