NOTE: This is my own version of draw analysis on 2010 Rogers Cup. In this self-version of draw analysis, I will pick who I think will be 2010 Rogers Cup Men's Champion.
The ATP World Tour Masters 1000 resume at Toronto, with top players are meeting again for this tune-up event leading to US Open. With top seed Rafael Nadal, who is gunning for fourth consecutive ATP World Tour Masters 1000 of the year since winning Monte-Carlo, Rome, and Madrid before capturing 2010 French Open and Wimbledon, will try to show us again his strong performance as he will try to capture the only Grand Slam that eludes him so far.
World No.3 Roger Federer is also back after a quarterfinal exit at 2010 Wimbledon, now with his new coach Paul Annacone around. The first-time No.3 seed after dominating the tour for more or less five years and the 16th time ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titlist, will try to recapture the form the give him 16 Grand Slam titles.
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| Andy Murray 2009 Rogers Cup Men's Champion |
World No.2 Novak Djokovic, a former champion in this event is also back and this time partner with Nadal to play the doubles match. It is interesting to see how far these two top players will go in the doubles event.
The defending champion and No.4 seed Andy Murray will try to defend his title. Can he do it again given that the draw is too strong? As he is working on his game, will it paid off? Playing his first tournament coachless, will he be able to defend his Rogers Cup title?
The Quarters - Part 1
World No.1 Nadal and the top seed in this event has given a first round bye. He will have a potential meeting with Swiss No.2 Stanislas Wawrinka. Wawrinka, who has a mediocre performance in the past few months, will not give much trouble for Nadal. Can Sam Querrey do it?
Querrey, a winner of four ATP Tour titles this season, is considered an in-form player will give American a boost most especially in the upcoming 2010 US Open. But Querrey has yet to score a win over Nadal in three previous attempt. Can Querrey snap it? Who will book a spot in the quarterfinals?
In the bottom part of this quarter draw is full of dark horses will battle out to book a meeting with the top seed. The likes of Marin Cilic opens his match against Viktor Troicki is enjoying his sole win against Nadal in their only meeting at Beijing in 2009, Philipp Kohlschreiber opens his match against Janko Tipsarevic is 0-6 over Nadal and this will be their third meeting of the year, and Paul-Henri Mathieu has awarded a bye and has yet to score a win over Nadal in 10 attempts. How about Yen-Hsun Lu, can he score an upset too?
Cilic and Kohlschreiber will most likely to progress, but Cilic will work his way to meet Nadal for a spot in the semifinals. Can he do it for the second time around with Nadal's form is nearly perfect?
Semifinalist: Cilic
Player to watch: Lu, who upset Andy Roddick in the fourth round at 2010 Wimbledon will try to fight again to score an upset.
Player to watch: Lu, who upset Andy Roddick in the fourth round at 2010 Wimbledon will try to fight again to score an upset.
The Quarters - Part 2
World No.4 Murray will open his title defense against Xavier Malisse or Michael Berrer for a spot in the third round after he has been awarded with a first round bye. A potential meeting with Gael Monfils for a quarterfinals spot is looming. But Monfils will have to pass the challenge that will be thrown by unseeded Indian Somdev Devvarman in the first round and the winner of the battle between Feliciano Lopez and Thiemo de Bakker in the second round.
The part of this draw is too strong and expect a tight matches along the way. Robin Soderling who awaits the winner of the battle between rising stars Thomaz Bellucci and Ernests Gulbis for a place in the third round. Whoever player met by Soderling will surely give him much trouble. Is he facing an upset?
David Ferrer begins his campaign against the resurgent David Nalbandian, who is fresh from winning his first title since been laid off by injury. Nalbandian, who is coming back strong, has a potential to do some damage in the draw starting with Ferrer. How far can he go with his current form?
Whoever gets advanced will meet the winner between Tommy Robredo and Jarkko Nieminen. This is a real challenge for everyone. While Nalbandian is no strange former top-10 player, will bring up the fight to everyone in this section of the draw and most likely will favored him to get through.
No strange at all. If Soderling faced Nalbandian, the Swede will need to work hard as he is down 1-5 against Nalbandian in their career meetings. The upset is on the verge for Soderling. Can he escape?
Who anticipate that Murray will be facing his old foe that has a winning record against him? Yes, Nalbandian leads Murray 2-0. Will this be third time lucky for Nalbandian's resurgence and find himself in second final of the year? Or Murray will snap that winning streak Nalbandian has been holding now?
Semifinalist: Nalbandian
Match to watch: Two rising stars Gulbis and Bellucci will battle out to meet Soderling. Can they build themselves as a serious contender at the Open?
Match to watch: Two rising stars Gulbis and Bellucci will battle out to meet Soderling. Can they build themselves as a serious contender at the Open?
The Quarters - Part 3
In a very rare occasion since Federer dominated the game, he entered this event as seeded No.3 behind Nadal and Djokovic. The task at hand is huge as he may slip to world No.4 when he does not perform well. But Federer is Federer, he has a lot of resources to win, can that resources will lead him all the way to 17th ATP World Tour Masters 1000?
Given a first round bye, Federer's opening match will be either Juan Ignacio Chela or Alejandro Falla, the man who pushed him to five sets in the first round of Wimbledon. In the third, his possible opponent will be this year's ATP Tour titlist, but it's a battle between ATP Tour Gstaad and Bastad champion Nicolas Almagro and ATP Tour Eastbourne and Marseille champion Michael Llodra. Almagro who hasn't captured a title at hardcourt have a tough task to do against Llodra. Whoever gets advanced, this will be good challenge for Federer as he will be facing in-form opponents who could cause an upset.
Also, in this section of the draw will be Federer's nemesis that defeated him twice this year and the recent was in their quarterfinal match at Wimbledon, Tomas Berdych. In the second round, he awaits the winner between the ATP Tour Nice champion Richard Gasquet or ATP Tour s-Hertogenbosch champion Sergiy Stakhovsky. Berdych is one of the in-form player on the tour right now and will not let this slip it away from his fingers.
Additional challenge for Berdych is yet to come as Oleksandr Dolgopolov Jr., Philipp Petzschner, Gilles Simon, and Mikhail Youzhny will battle it out to book a meeting with him in the third round. Can somebody stop Berdych?
It seems it is bound to happen and this will be an interesting quarterfinal match. The repeat of 2010 ATP Masters 1000 Miami and 2010 Wimbledon quarterfinal match, Federer and Berdych once again will probably give us match to enjoy. Is this a third time lucky for Berdych? Can Federer let Berdych defeat him again? With Federer leading 8-3 against Berdych, who got an advantage in this 12th episode of their career meeting that started since 2004 Athens Olympics.
Semifinalist: Federer
Player to watch: Dolgopolov is a dangerous floaters in this draw and will surely can do some upsets. How far can he go? Is he ready to take the challenge of top players?
Player to watch: Dolgopolov is a dangerous floaters in this draw and will surely can do some upsets. How far can he go? Is he ready to take the challenge of top players?
The Quarters - Part 4
In this quarter, it is given a smooth passage for Djokovic a spot in the semifinals? His possible opponent in his opening match is either Julien Benneteau or rising star Denis Istomin. Victor Hanescu and 2010 French Open semifinalist Jurgen Melzer are both open their campaign against local stars, Miloc Raonic and Peter Polansky, respectively. These local stars will surely give their hometown crowd something to cheer on. Who will have a chance to meet No.2 seed Djokovic for a place in the quarterfinals?
Slump. Resurgence. Who will take charge? Nikolay Davydenko and Fernando Verdasco is facing a bit of slump as Marcos Baghdatis resurgence is a continuing success. How about newly-married man Radek Stepanek?
At least Baghdatis continue to rise in his comeback. Davydenko and Verdasco had shared a good results last year. Davydenko collected five ATP Tour titles last year, most notably the ATP Masters 1000 Shanghai and Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, this year he has one ATP title at Doha. Verdasco captured one ATP title in 2009 at New Haven and two ATP titles this year at Barcelona and San Jose. They haven't been the same players since the first half of the ATP season. Can they recharge enough for the upcoming US Open?
Unfortunately, with their current form, it's hard to select a top player in this part of the quarter as Djokovic will swing freely to the semifinal.
Semifinalist: Djokovic
Player to watch: Polansky, a Canadian rising star will try to cause some damage in the draw. With his first test against Melzer, an upset will give him boost to go deep in this event.
Player to watch: Polansky, a Canadian rising star will try to cause some damage in the draw. With his first test against Melzer, an upset will give him boost to go deep in this event.
The Semifinals
Cilic vs. Nalbandian: They met at Washington this year in the semifinals where Nalbandian lift his first trophy since winning at Sydney in 2009. Cilic successfully defended the two titles he captured in 2009 at Zagreb and Chennai. With Nalbandian lead 2-0 against Cilic since 2006, this third meeting will surely give any of them enough confidence at the Open. With Juan Martin del Potro out of the way, Argentina still has someone to cheer about as Nalbandian has come back strongly and most likely will fly high again in this tournament. Nalbandian in straight sets.
Federer vs. Djokovic: This will be the repeat of their 2007 ATP Masters 1000 Canada finals, where Djokovic make a breakthrough and go all the way to the finals at 2007 US Open losing to eventual champion Federer. Since 2007 in this tournament, Djokovic and Federer met 10 times in either semifinals or finals, where they have a split record, 5-5. With their overall career head-to-head stand at 9-5 in favor of Federer, this 15th version of their meeting still got spark of their enriched rivalry.
In this semifinal stage, Federer is recoving from a little bit of slump that cost him his Grand Slam semifinal streak, his Wimbledon crown, as well as the No.1 ranking, while Djokovic will be showing some flashes of excellence that brought him to his first Grand Slam breakthrough. They are no strange facing each other and they surely know each other's game well. A win for Federer will guarantee him the No.2 ranking currently held by Djokovic. Who will advance to the final? Federer in tight three sets.
Finalists: Nalbandian, Federer
The Finals
Federer and Nalbandian will continue their 19th episode of their storied rivalry. Since 2007 ATP Masters 1000 Paris, they have an even head-to-head record at 8-all. Federer won their last two meetings in 2008 at Basel and ATP Masters 1000 Monte-Carlo, to take the lead 10-8. There's no question that they have a very close encounter. Each one giving the other a fight and whoever wins an excellent match has been surely played. With both is coming back, Federer from mediocre results in the past three months and Nalbandian from injury, both will have gain enough boost in the upcoming tournaments most especially in the upcoming US Open.
This will be their 12th meeting on hardcourt event and their tight head-to-head record 6-5, will surely give us another match to remain in our seats. Will Nalbandian gets another win over Federer? Or Federer will continue to dominate Nalbandian? Federer in three sets.
Champion: Roger Federer
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