TORONTO — While there may not be a clear cut favourite to win the woman’s side of this year’s Rogers Cup, it looks like there will be no shortage of quality matches thanks to a great turnout by the world’s top female players. And too many stars is a good problem to have.
The jury is out on whether it makes life easy or difficult for the schedule makers, but with 23 of the top 25 women at the tournament, including a handful of former No. 1-ranked players and one-half of the Williams’ sisters and Canadian rising star Rebecca Marino in Toronto, almost every match is centre court worthy.
As history shows, this hasn’t always been the case when the WTA tour comes north of the border. In fact, in years past there has been a lack of star-power. Last year in Montreal, just five of the big names dropped out because of injuries including Serena, Venus, Justine Henin, Maria Sharapova and Samantha Stosur.
Serena is always a big-draw for fans; unfortunately a viral infection kept her equally-as-decorated sister from making the trip and thus becoming the first tournament in North America where both would sisters compete. The Williams’ duo endured a tough year on the court due to injuries; now Serena faces an unseeded and a longer path to the final Sunday.
That said; having already won a tournament in just her third try since returning from injury, she’s got a big target on her back. She comes into Toronto ranked No. 79, but played like a No. 1in last month’s Bank of the West Classic. Serena beat a pair of Top 10 players in Maria Sharapova and Marion Bartoli en route to winning the title. Serena shouldn’t have too much trouble against her 1st round opponent No. 126 Alona Bondarenko. It gets a little more interesting in the next round where Serena could be up against another former No. 1 Jelena Jankovic.
Given Marino’s breakthrough year, the Canadian is hoping to generate a lot of buzz in front of the home crowd. Ranked No. 41 in the world, the Vancouver resident is making her main draw debut at the Rogers Cup. Although she’s lost both meetings to her opening round opponent, Ekaterina Makarova, in the past year, Marino will look to benefit from the support of the fans.
MONDAY’S SCHEDULE:
Sportsnet East/Ontario/Pacific
12 p.m. ET | Men’s draw
#14 Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI) vs David Nalbandian (ARG)
2 p.m. ET | Men’s draw
Ernests Gulbis (LAT) vs Juan Carlos Ferrero (ESP)
7 p.m. ET | Women’s draw
#15 Jelena Jankovic (SRB) vs Julia Goerges (GER)
* Followed by: Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) vs Rebecca Marino (CAN)
Sportsnet West/ONE
11 a.m ET | Women’s draw
#10 Samantha Stosur (Aus) vs Ayumi Morita (JPN)
1 p.m. ET | Women’s draw
Galina Voskoboeva (KAZ) vs # 9 Marion Bartoli (FRA)
3 p.m. ET | Women’s draw
Simona Halep (ROU) vs # 12 Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS)
5:30 p.m. ET | Men’s draw
Jarkko Nieminen (FIN) vs #16 Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG)
7:30 p.m. ET | Men’s draw
Fabio Fognini (ITA) vs # 13 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA)
Sportsnet.ca
12 p.m ET | Men’s draw:
Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR) vs Erik Chvojka (CAN)
* Followed by: Men’s – Andrey Golubev (KAZ) vs Thomaz Bellucci (BRA)
* Followed by: Men’s – Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) vs Flavio Cipolla (ITA)
7:30 p.m. ET | Men’s draw:
Bernard Tomi (AUS) vs Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE)