Giant Slayer

Brava, Camila! 🇮🇹 🏆#OBN21 pic.twitter.com/LbiAwTj1yz

— wta (@WTA) August 15, 2021

It's been a long and winding road for Camila Giorgi the last few years.

The 29-year-old Italian first caught our eye at Wimbledon back in 2012 when, ranked #145 in the world, she stunned compatriot Flavia Penetta and former world #3 Nadia Petrova on her way to the fourth round. She scored some big wins after that, too, stunning Caroline Wozniacki at the U.S. Open in 2013, beating Maria Sharapova at Indian Wells a year later, and running to the quarters at the All England Club in 2018, her best yet performance at a Major and the catalyst for her career high ranking at #26.

But she's been a little inconsistent around her successes. After making the final at the Citi Open in 2019, she lost the first round in Cincy. Another runner-up finish in the Bronx that summer was followed by an opening round exit at Flushing Meadows. She started this season ranked #76 and between August of last year and this past June she only won more than two matches at the same event once.

Things may be changing for her though. Clearly most comfortable on grass, she stunned an on-fire Aryna Sabalenka in the Eastbourne quarters. And her switch to hardcourts has been rather impressive -- she took out Jen Brady and Wimbledon finalist Karolina Pliskova on her way to the final eight in Tokyo. And that was nothing compared to what she did this past week in Montreal.

Unseeded an low ranked, Giorgi was not dealt an easy hand at the Omnium Banque Nationale. She opened against ninth seed Elise Mertens and got the win in straight sets. She went on to take out 2020's surprise French semifinalist Nadia Podoroska, two-time Wimbledon champ Petra Kvitova, wünderking Coco Gauff, all without dropping a set. In yesterday's semi against Jessica Pegula, she avenged that loss in Washington two years ago, and today she scored her third win of the season over Pliskova, whose own run here got her a ticket back to the top five.

It's quite an intimidating list of opponents she left in her wake, and for her efforts she was appropriately awarded with by far the biggest title of her career. But maybe more importantly, she proved she can be dangerous even off the surface we've come to believe is her best, and that could make her quite a threat as we count down to the final Major of the year.

Meanwhile...

Of course, it wasn't just Giorgi bringing home the hardware this weekend. World #2 Daniil Medvedev put even more distance between himself and #GOAT 🐐 contender Rafael Nadal -- who, incidentally, slipped behind Stefanos Tsitsipas this week after an early loss in Washington pushed him out of the top three. The Russian, who breezed past big-serving Reilly Opelka in today's final in Toronto, added a third Masters crown to his résumé and has now one, or finished second at basically every important second half hard court event since 2019.

With Roger Federer out of the U.S. Open, and Nadal's withdrawal from Toronto and Cincy putting his prospects in question, Medvedev may be the best positioned to thwart Novak Djokovic's quest for that historic calendar year Grand Slam. I've said that before, of course, but something tells me this time things could be very different.

"Más Pelotas que Nadie"

I had a friend in college with a t-shirt brandishing that slogan attesting to his gutsiness. Funny thing -- he had no idea what it meant. But the guys and gals who walked away with the titles in Canada this weekend sure understand it -- whether coming from behind, pulling off upsets or taking on the very best in the sport, they showed they not only have the skills, but the nerve and mental toughness they need to not only have one successful run, but to possibly climb even higher up the ranks than they ever have before.

Up in Montreal the men, despite some early drama that had nothing to do with the game, certainly brought their A-games to Rogers Cup play. While plenty of upstarts were able to make a bit of a dent in the draws -- long-struggling Erensts Gulbis actually had match points against Novak Djokovic in their quarterfinal match and little-heralded Jeremy Chardy launched a huge comeback against John Isner to make his first Masters semi -- ultimately it was the top two seeds who made it to Sunday's championship match. World #1 Djokovic was going for his sixth title of the year, having lost at just three events all season long and seemed to survive every test he was handed. Andy Murray, meanwhile, fresh off an opening round loss at the Citi Open, rolled through his half of the draw, easily dispatching recent nemesis Tommy Robredo and defending champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, both in straight sets. Still with an 0-8 record against the powerful Serb over the last eighteen or so months, he might have been a little less than confident -- as an example of his nerves, after getting an early break he squandered a couple chances to build an even bigger lead and then gave the break right back. He managed to take the first set but then dropped the second and could have easily let the match slip away. But the newly-expecting Scot was able to up his game again. Fighting off opportunities Djokovic had to even out the decider again, Murray ultimately was able to serve out the three-hour match and claim his fourth trophy this season. And while it may not have been the most significant title of his career, by ending a long losing streak against the top player in the world, it could be just as meaningful.

But this weekend's finals weren't just about players reasserting themselves on court -- over in Toronto we were treated to seeing what might be the biggest breakthrough of the season. Teenage phenom Belinda Bencic may have been one of the most improved players of last season, but she's really been able to shine in 2015. After a kind of slow start to the year -- she lost her first round qualifying in Doha and six openers during the first five months of the year. But she really hit her stride once the grass court season, reaching the final in Den Bosch and picking up that all-important maiden title in Eastbourne, beating Aga Radwanska in the final. This week she racked up a couple more top ten wins -- Caroline Wozniacki in the second round, Ana Ivanovic in the quarters and -- stunningly -- Serena Williams in the semis. To put that in perspective, the eighteen-year-old was only two when the world #1 won her first Grand Slam title and now, sixteen years later, handed her just her second loss of the season. And even after all that, in the final against second seed Simona Halep, the Swiss Miss still seemed in better shape. She eked out the first set in a tiebreak and seemed in control of the second, but a struggling Halep fought back from the brink multiple times to force a third. Despite the huge effort from her opponent, though, Bencic stayed that much tougher -- when the Romanian came back from a break between the second set and the decider looking even more depleted than before, the unseeded teen pounced and ran off to a 3-0 lead before the world #3 retired. It may not be the way she wanted to claim the trophy, but after the wins she scored all week, you can't discount how much she accomplished.

And with both of this year's Rogers Cup champs proving just how strong they can be when pushed to the limit, there's no telling how much more they can do.

The Comebacks

Is it just me, or have we seen a couple of recently-forgotten stars find a way to shine again on the courts of Canada?

Sure, some hometown heroes are still struggling in their native land -- both Genie Bouchard and Milos Raonic lost their Rogers Cup openers -- but a couple other players who've been underperforming of late seem to have gotten their games back together this week. And that could bode well for their future.

Sabine Lisicki hadn't fallen so far off the radar, but the former Wimbledon runner-up has been a little quiet of late. The German powerhouse has scored wins over the likes of Caroline Wozniacki, Maria Sharapova, even Serena Williams, but despite a couple solid runs during the early spring hardcourt season, had dropped to #24 in the world coming into Toronto. That wasn't high enough to earn a seed this week, but so far she's proven to be a dangerous spoiler -- she lost just three games to Venus Williams in her first round and yesterday took out last year's comeback kid, Barbora Strycova in a tight two sets. She'll face off against young Belinda Bencic today -- the Swiss breakout is coming off an upset of Wozniacki herself -- but with a win in the pair's only previous meeting, Lisicki is more than capable of keeping her streak going.

Perhaps Roberta Vinci will be able to do the same. The one-time world #11 has notched more than a few surprising losses over the past few seasons, this year going 0-3 on the grass, what's traditionally been her strongest surface. She did manage a final run in Nürnberg, but has also lost to players like Tatjana Maria and Veronica Cepede Royg, both ranked in triple digits. She came to Toronto still outside the top fifty herself, but opened with a double bagel of compatriot Karin Knapp, the woman who beat her for that title in Germany, and on Wednesday scored a huge win over recent giant-killer Mirjana Lucic-Baroni. Next up for the Italian veteran is Daria Garvrilova, a former Junior champion who's already beaten Ana Ivanovic and Maria Sharapova this year. The unseeded Russian is also coming off a huge win over surprise Roland Garros finalist Lucie Safarova, so she certainly can't be discounted -- but a win in their match today could give Vinci the confidence that seems to have been missing from her game for quite some time.

There have been a couple resurrections at the men's tournament in Montreal too. Former U.S. Open semifinalist Mikhail Youzhny has put together a middling 6-18 record this year, losing eight straight matches since late May, and hasn't gotten out of a Major second round in almost two years. Now ranked at #107 the Russian qualifier could have been well out of contention at the Rogers Cup, but he took out 2014 standout Viktor Troicki in his opener and yesterday pulled off his first win over ninth seed Gilles Simon since 2011. His road only gets tougher from here, of course -- the thirty-three year old will meet Rafael Nadal for a spot in the quarterfinals and while the also-struggling has shown a few kinks in his armor of late, he dismantled Youzhny in what had the potential to be a very tough first round in Melbourne. Still the ten-time Tour titleist is playing better than he has in quite some time and might just be able to take advantage of any opportunity he's given.

But perhaps the biggest surprise of the week has come from former French Open semifinalist Ernests Gulbis, who's had more than a little trouble coming back from a shoulder injury that hampered the back half of his season in 2014. A disappointing 5-13 this year, he only made it to the second round in Paris and has fallen from a #10 ranking last September to a whopping #87 now. But the Latvian might be proving it's never too late to shake off the cobwebs -- also a qualifier in Montreal, he started his campaign by avenging a U.S. Open loss to red-hot Dominic Thiem and then picked up another win over Lukas Rosol. Slated next to face Donald Young, launching his own comeback after taking out Tomas Berdych on Wednesday, Gulbis could sneak even further through his draw. And while there's no shortage of threats left in the bracket, this could be the perfect time for him to cement his return.

Whether these guys can continue their runs not only in Canada, but throughout the rest of the year of course remains to be seen. But it sure is nice to see each of them putting together a couple wins in a row this week. And if momentum stays with them, who knows what they'll be able to do when the stakes get even higher in a few weeks' time.

Feels Like Forever

In truth, it hasn't been that long since this weekend's champions last hoisted a trophy, but it sure feels like it's been a while. Whether dealing with injury, being overshadowed by rising stars, or falling in early rounds to players ranked far below them, both Aga Radwanska and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had been pushed from the headlines the last few months. But their performances this week in Canada might have turned the tide back in their favor, and it couldn't have come at a better time.

Agnieszka Radwanska had put up a couple solid performances this season, reaching the semis in Melbourne and the final in Indian Wells, but she hadn't won a title since Seoul last fall and was upset in the first week at both the French Open and Wimbledon. She still held onto the third seed in Montreal this past week, but she faced a tough draw from the start -- she opened against All England Club Cinderella Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, followed up with a win over record-breaking server Sabine Lisicki and then scored her second straight win over long-time rival Victoria Azarenka. In her semifinal against Ekaterina Makarova she avenged her loss in the Wimbledon fourth round and set up a clash with veteran champion Venus Williams for the title. Sure, Aga was the on-paper favorite against the unseeded Williams, but Venus had already notched wins over Stanford runner-up Angelique Kerber and recent foil Carla Suarez Navarro before stunning younger sister Serena in a three-set semi, her first win over the world #1 since 2009 -- she certainly was more than capable of getting another win on Sunday. But Radwanska got the upper hand this time, pouncing on Venus's second serve and breaking her opponent five times. In under an hour and a half, the Pole had picked up trophy number fourteen, her biggest since 2012, and put herself squarely back in the conversation as the summer hardcourt season really heats up.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga seemed to have fallen even further out of that conversation -- the one-time world #5 failed to defend his Marseille title in February and hadn't made it to the second week of a Major since Roland Garros last year. He'd posted losses this season to players like #46 Santiago Giraldo in Madrid, #60 Marinko Matosevic at Queen's Club, and #119 Peter Gojowczyk at Davis Cup and went 0-7 against opponents ranked in the top ten. That was, of course, before he got to Toronto. A low thirteenth seed at the Rogers Cup, he stunned two-time champion Novak Djokovic in the third round and followed up with wins over Andy Murray and Grigor Dimitrov to make his first Masters final since 2011. There he faced off against legend Roger Federer, who'd reached his fifth final at this event, albeit by facing a couple challenges on the way -- he'd played late into the night in two-and-a-half hour-plus third round battle against Marin Cilic and needed another three sets to get past David Ferrer in the quarters. Tsonga, though, who'd notched a couple big wins over Federer in the past, proved the cooler of the two in the final -- on serve through the first eleven games of the match, he converted the only break opportunity of the opening set and created six more chances in the second while winning more than ninety percent of his first serves. Though he squandered one match point on Roger's serve, he ultimately took the championship in a tiebreak, capping off what might have been the most successful week of his career.

With their wins this week, both Radwanska and Tsonga have not only ended a long dry spell, but put themselves back in the mix as we head to the final Grand Slam of the year. While the stakes are only getting higher in the weeks to come, their performances in Canada show they know how to perform under pressure. And if they can keep it up, there's no telling how much more they can do.

Homecourt Disadvantage

It's a little surprising, given how successful Canadians have been on the tennis courts this year, that when they get to the biggest tournaments played in their own homeland, where presumably the crowd support would give them a nice boost, so many are having troubles.

Not everyone has fallen, of course, but even DC champion Milos Raonic had to fight back in Toronto after losing the first set to Jack Sock last night, and needed two tiebreaks to ultimately advance. He next faces Julien Benneteau, a thirty-two year old veteran who is still looking for that first career title, and while he has won two of the pair's three meetings, the fight for the quarterfinals could be quite a battle. The Frenchman dropped just three games against Newport champ Lleyton Hewitt in his opener and then took out eleventh seed Ernests Gulbis in straight sets. If he catches Raonic off guard, he might just pull off another upset.

Meanwhile Citi Open runner-up Vasek Pospisil, whose campaign there pushed him up nine ranking spots to #27 in the world, fell a bit short of last year's semifinal showing at the Rogers Cup. He drew a rematch of his DC semifinal in his opener, and this time fell to Richard Gasquet in straight sets. And the twelfth seed in Toronto kept that momentum with him -- after dropping his first set to Ivo Karlovic yesterday, he didn't allow another break opportunity and finally took out the big-serving Croat in about two hours. He faces Andy Murray next, certainly a big ask, but the Frenchman has gotten wins over the two-time Grand Slam winner in the past and could have the confidence to get it done again.

But by far the biggest upset for the Canadians this week was the opening round exit of 2014 standout Genie Bouchard. Fresh off a second-place finish at Wimbledon, her first Tour-level Grand Slam final, and a climb into single-digit rankings, the twenty-year old suffered a shocking defeat in her Montreal opener, dropping two bagel sets to qualifier Shelby Rogers on Tuesday night. The young American who's only won a handful of ITF titles during her career, stormed onto the scene last month, beating Carla Suarez Navarro and Sara Errani on her way to the Bad Gastein final. Last week she beat third seeded Alize Cornet in DC and, still ranked outside the top hundred, ousted Nanchang champ Shaui Peng to qualify for this event. Her win over Bouchard is her biggest victory to date, and while she'll certainly be tested by former world #1 Caroline Wozniacki in today's third round, there's no reason she can't add one more upset to her r&eacture;sumé.

Sure, it's a little disappointing to see the Canadians struggle this week, even as their stars shine bright on the broader tennis stage. Of course I don't think their performances signal an end to their rise, but those left standing at the Rogers Cup have a huge opportunity to capitalize now. After all, with wins over players who've really come to the forefront of the sport in recent weeks and months, they've shown they've got what it takes to keep on going.

And with just a few weeks left before the U.S. Open, there's no better time to do it.

Cheers to Second Place!

So here's the thing about this weekend's championship matches in Canada -- once the final fields were settled, you pretty much knew what was going to happen. World #1 Serena Williams walked away with her eighth title of the year in Toronto, dropping just two games on Sunday, while Rafael Nadal, coming off an important win over top-seeded Novak Djokovic in the Montreal semis, was the heavy favorite in the final and won his twenty-fifth Masters title with little drama.

But the real story of this weekend might be that of the also-rans, the two runners-up who made their way to their first Tier One tournament finals by racking up a series of impressive wins during the week. They might not have come away with the wins this time, but the level of play they brought to their games might mean they've got what it takes to make a bigger impact down the road. And maybe this time the silver medalists won't dwell on the fact they came up short and can revel in the great things they did accomplish.

Sorana Cirstea had worked her way into the top thirty four years ago after a Cinderella run at the 2009 French Open. But she struggled even at the end of that year, losing five straight first round matches to finish off the season, and by the start of 2011 was back in triple digits. But the young Romanian slogged it out on the ITF circuit, got her game back on track last year and finished 2012 at #27 in the world. She'd pulled off a couple big wins this season, including a defeat of then-#6 Angelique Kerber in Miami, but really hit her stride in Canada. Unseeded at the Rogers Cup she took out two former #1's -- Caroline Wozniacki and Jelena Jankovic -- before ousting a couple Grand Slam champions. It was Cirstea's first championship match since winning a title in Tashkent back in 2008, and only her third career final. She might not have made a big dent against Serena in the barely one-hour match, but by leaving the trail of corpses on her way to the final not only got her to her highest-ever ranking this week, but may have proven she's got the talent to at least hit with the big girls.

Over in Montreal the men faced a similarly deep field with eight top ten players making the trip to the Great White North. Things were shaky, though, with two-time champion Andy Murray losing his third round match to Ernests Gulbis and third-seeded David Ferrer dropping in straights to world #83 Alex Bogomolov. Still Milos Raonic's advance to his first Masters final was nothing to scoff at -- he stunned Washington champion Juan Martin Del Potro in the third round and won the battle of Canadians in the semis after losing the middle set to Vasek Pospisil. Though he already has four titles to his name, three of which came in San Jose, this would've by far been his biggest and, having been unable to follow up on his first deep Major run, could have reminded the sport's elite of his relevance. Raonic couldn't capitalize this time, though, with the big server broken four out of four times. Still, it was a breakthrough to make it this far, and if he is able to learn from the experience, he might just be able to make an impact in New York.

Both of this weekend's champions re-cemented themselves at the top of the game, but the runners-up too were able to break new ground with their wins all week. It's not always about bringing home the biggest trophy, after all, and hopefully these almost-champions can use what they've learned and parlay it into an even brighter future.

Put Up, or Shut Up

The first few weeks of the summer hard court season can be tricky to navigate -- while some of the sport's top players skip the smaller tournaments, plenty others slug it out week after week at events where relatively few points are on the line. But with bigger bounties at stake this week in Canada, this past weekend's champions will want to prove they can deliver when it really counts.

The heat took a bit of a toll on the ladies in Washington, with the favorites at the Citi Open falling earlier than expected. But that opened the door for a couple others to strut their stuff, hopefully putting themselves back on the map as they head to New York. Andrea Petkovic, a year removed from her career-high in the top ten, has been working her way back up the rankings since injuries cut her 2012 season short. She wasn't seeded in Washington, but nevertheless caused upsets of both Mona Barthel and Alize Cornet on the way to her second final of the year. But she was ultimately stopped by defending champion Magdalena Rybarikova, who's currently playing some of the best tennis of her career. The petite Slovak, who beat both Ekaterina Makarova and top-seeded Angelique Kerber in DC, kept her momentum going early this week in Toronto with a straight-set win earlier today. It's a better result than some other champions have seen of late -- Dominika Cibulkova lost her very next match after winning a title in Stanford -- so hopefully Rybarikova can keep it up. She's never made much of a splash at any Premier event, so this could be her chance.

The stakes were a little higher for the men in DC, with the first nine seeds all ranked in the top twenty-five. There was some follow-through here, with Atlanta runner-up Kevin Anderson getting back to the quarters and John Isner, the champion down South, making his way all the way back to the final, albeit being the favorite in each of his first four matches. He even seemed to have the upper hand in Sunday's final, opening by taking his only set off 2009 U.S. Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro in their previous meetings. But the top seed, coming off a late-night semifinal win over Tommy Haas, was able to regroup, dominating his fellow big man and winning his third straight title in the U.S. capital. DelPo gets a first round bye at the Rogers Cup this week, but he's certainly parlayed success here into bigger things in the past. Isner, meanwhile, may need to do some serious soul-searching -- though he certainly has a big weapon, he continues to struggle closing out matches -- he was forced to three sets and two tiebreaks in his Montreal opener, eventually losing to wildcard Vasek Pospisil in over two and a half hours. If he can't capitalize better on what he's got, it's hard to see him making any kind of dent when it counts.

The ladies who battled it out in Carlsbad last week have been a little more battle-tested. Finalists Victoria Azarenka and Sam Stosur have won three Grand Slam titles between them, though neither has been at the top of her game recently -- Vika, injured during her first round at Wimbledon, has been recovering in the weeks since while the Australian was a disappointing 19-15 on the year before heading to California. But both ladies pulled themselves together at the Southern Cali Open and, though both were tested -- Azarenka by Ana Ivanovic in the semifinal and Stosur by Aga Radwanska in the quarters -- proved they were back. And Stosur kept her run going, ending an eight-match losing streak to the former world-#1 and winning her first title in almost two years. Azarenka subsequently pulled out of this week's Rogers Cup in Toronto, while Stosur will open against qualifier Julia Glushko later today. The win should come easy for the newly anointed world-#11, but a good performance could mean big results for her in New York again. And having lost a bit of her luster over the past eighteen months, there may never be a better time for just that.

This is the time of summer where things get serious, and last week's champions will have to get right back to work. If they're going to make a real statement on their way to the Open, they don't get a chance to let their performance drop even a little. But if they can show us what they're really capable of, the payoff is sure to be worth it.

Canada Not-So-Dry

Rain sure tried to wreak havoc on the Rogers Cup all week -- with so many matches suspended and delayed, players were forced to cram in multiple rounds in one day, and the ladies, in fact, won't decide their champion until later today. The weather wasn't to blame for all the surprises we saw over the last few days, of course -- the grueling summer schedule cast a shadow in the form of several pull-outs and retirements in Canada and Cincinnati -- and with both the literal and figurative clouds cleared, we're left with some results we might not have expected.

A lot of the big upsets in Toronto came in the early rounds, but players like Mardy Fish pulled off a solid comeback against Juan Monaco and top American John Isner stayed tough against fellow big-server Milos Raonic to make the semis. Both, however, were stopped by France's Richard Gasquet, who's seemed to make a habit of dismissing the best U.S. athletes this year.

In the other half of the draw, defending champion Novak Djokovic was trying to "turn around" the year that's only brought him two titles and seen him fall before the semifinals one time*. He didn't have to face a seeded player in his first three rounds, but with matches against back-on-the-rise Sam Querrey and Tommy Haas, he was certainly dealt no easy draw. His biggest on-paper challenge came late Saturday night when he faced off against countryman Janko Tipsarevic in a stop-and-go semi. But even that he handled easily, winning all but three points on his first serve and getting back to the final after less than two hours of actual play.

The championship match itself wasn't much to speak of. Gasquet hadn't beaten the recent #1 since 2007, and couldn't seem to get a foothold in this, his third Masters 1000 final. Novak broke early and often, served better than he had even on Saturday and before you even knew what happened, had earned his twelfth Masters trophy and moved himself within a few hundred points of reclaiming the #1 ranking. If he's able to keep up his play in Cincinnati -- not out of the question considering he's one of the few players who doesn't seem to be nursing major ailments -- he could make himself the favorite again at the fast-approaching U.S. Open.

The drama in the ladies draw was arguably more palpable. After the withdrawals and the upsets, there were a couple unseeded players who survived as far as the quarters and ultimately no one in the top five was left standing by the semis.

In the first match contested Sunday, world #23 Lucie Safarova, who'd already dismissed Sam Stosur and and an always-tough Roberta Vinci in Montreal, faced off against 2011 French Open champion Na Li, a woman who'd only won one match since the fourth round of this year's Roland Garros. She looked on point in Canada though, first ousting fellow clay-courter Sara Errani in the third round and then ending Aggie Radwanska's bid to become the top ranked player in the world with a two-and-one drubbing of the Wimbledon runner-up. The veteran Chinese got in trouble early against Safarova, ceding the only break of the first set, and found herself in a 1-5 hole in the decider. But the pressure finally seemed to get to the Czech, as she failed to serve out the match twice and finally succumbed in the nearly two-hour match.

The second semi was no less exciting. Former #1 Caroline Wozniacki and the player of 2011 Petra Kvitova were both hoping to claim their first title of the season. The Dane was arguably running on fumes, needing nearly four-and-a-half hours on court Saturday to survive both Varvara Lepchenko and hometown girl Aleksandra Wozniak. She started off strong too against last year's Wimbledon champ by taking the first set, but Kvitova was able to force a decider just before the skies opened up again. When play resumed later that evening, this Czech hit her way to a two-break lead and eventually finished off her opponent to make her first final of the season.

The finalists don't have a lot of history -- their three meetings have all happened in the last fifteen months -- but Li won their only meeting on a hardcourt this past January, and Kvitova hasn't traditionally fared well during this North American swing. But she's been more than solid in her last few matches, and with the motivation to prove last year was no fluke might just be in a position to run to a title here.

It has certainly been a brutal couple weeks for all the players on Tour, but those who've survived the rains at the first big event of this U.S. Open Series might just have a leg up on their competition. It promises to be an exhausting couple weeks before the next Major, but these guys have proven they might have the stamina to last a bit longer than others. And if they pace themselves during this home stretch, they might just come out shining brighter on the other end.

* Novak's earliest loss this year was in the Madrid quarterfinals, to world #8 Tipsarevic.

Making the Switch

It's been a rough couple days for the sport's best players as they've tried to make the relatively late shift to the American hardcourt season. With so many staying on Wimbledon's grass for the Olympics last week, there wasn't a lot of time to adjust for the first big events of the U.S. Open Series.

Players like fourth-place finisher Maria Kirilenko and runner-up Maria Sharapova skipped the Rogers Cup in Canada entirely, while Gold medalist Andy Murray withdrew after his first match. And a couple who were hoping to stick around fared no better -- five men's seeds, including Bronze winner Juan Martin Del Potro, were upset in Toronto on Wednesday and top players like Sam Stosur and Petra Kvitova had to fight back from the brink in Montreal.

But that does open the door for other players still in the draw -- both those who have been slogging it out on the surface the last few weeks while the favorites were otherwise occupied, and those who didn't last quite as long at the All England Club as they might have hoped.

Aggie Radwanska's run to the final at Wimbledon solidified her spot as one of the sport's top athletes, but her opening loss at the Summer Games threatened to halt her momentum cold. She got herself in a bit of danger her first match in Montreal, dropping her first set to rising German Mona Barthel. But perhaps helped by a couple rain delays, the Pole regrouped in the second and finally closed out the match. Traditionally strong this time of year, she might be able to take advantage of any holes left in the draw.

Sara Errani, too, hasn't done much off the clay since spring -- she's won a match here and there on grass, but with an infamous golden set against her record she might have been aching to get on a surface more to her liking. She's never won a Tour title on a hardcourt, but with a run to the Australian Open quarters, you know she can cause some waves. She was dominant in her opener against Jana Cepelova, but will have to raise her game against Na Li, a woman who's proven she's still relevant on both Errani's best grounds. If she can score the win, though, it could bode well for the Italian the rest of this week.

It's not just the favorites, though, that stand to gain in Montreal. Hometown favorite Aleksandra Wozniak has been rebuilding her game all year, winning an ITF title in Nassau and cutting her ranking basically in half. She survived a close call against unseeded and recovering Daniela Hantuchova in her first round and followed up with a one-sided victory over former #1 Jelena Jankovic on Thursday. She'll be the underdog again against Christina McHale in her next match, but with the American going three sets in her early rounds, Wozniak might be the fresher contestant. And the way her section of the draw is shaping up, there's plenty of reason to believe she could keep on going.

The men in Toronto have seen their bracket busted wide open over the last few days, and while favorites like Novak Djokovic and Canada's own Milos Raonic have survived, the possibilities for others may be stronger. Mardy Fish has a chunk of points to defend in the coming weeks, and while his contemporaries bided their time in London, he got in a couple practice shots in the U.S. He's only played one match so far at the Rogers Cup, but his drubbing of his Indian Wells vanquisher Matthew Ebden -- he lost just seven points on serve and needed less than an hour to advance -- suggests he's in good form. If he can make it past new top-tenner Juan Monaco next, certainly no easy task, he could make a good and deep run here.

Tommy Haas has also spent the summer rebuilding his game. Back in the top thirty thanks to a title in Halle and runner-up finishes in Hamburg and Washington, he's already survived two tough opponents -- veteran David Nalbandian nearly ousted him early while ninth seeded Gilles Simon provided relatively little resistance. He'll next face Radek Stepanek, who on Wednesday scored a big win over Juan Martin Del Potro and won their most recent meeting in Miami. But Haas is a different player these days and might just be the favorite this time.

But the sleeper in this draw might be Jeremy Chardy who notched his first top-ten victory of the year over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Wednesday. The Frenchman barely has a winning record on the year, but by making the third round here, he looks to be changing that. He'll next meet Spain's Marcel Granollers, a man who's technically a favorite, but with just two wins on hardcourts so far this year, he might not be quite up to snuff. Chardy did win the pair's only previous match about a year ago, too, so history could be on his side.

The switch to hardcourts seems to have had different effects on players this week, taking some victims, allowing others redemption, and rewarding those who've remained loyal to it the last few weeks. Whether players can keep the momentum they've captured so far in Canada as we head to the final Grand Slam of the year remains to be seen. But performances so far bode well for these players, and with a more wins they might just change the conversation at the U.S. Open.

The Streak Resumes

It's been a while since we've seen the biggest stars in tennis all take to the courts. And though not all of them made it through the early rounds at the Rogers Cup, the ones who did quickly picked up the momentum that's been with them either since the start of the year or since the beginning of their careers.

Novak Djokovic came to Montreal to play his first tournament since taking over the #1 ranking post Wimbledon. And he was dealt a tough draw too, tested early by former top-three player Nikolay Davydenko and running into a rebuilding Marin Cilic a round later. But with most of his toughest competition taken care of for him, he eventually progressed to his ninth final of the year without dropping a set.

There he faced a challenge from recent U.S.-circuit stalwart Mardy Fish. The top-ranked American has been having a more-than-successful thirteen months, reaching a career-high ranking and notching wins over the likes of Tomas Berdych, David Ferrer and Andy Murray, to name a few. He had a slightly bumpier road to Sunday's championship, but avenged his LA loss to Ernests Gulbis and withstood a second-set challenge from Stanislas Wawrinka in the fourth round. For a man who'd never won a match in Canada before, making the final was quite a statement.

Djokovic got off to a good start, saving five break chances in the first set to take the lead. He stumbled a bit in the second, though, as Fish upped his serving percentage from a dismal one-for-three and broke his opponent at love to even the score. The two hard-hitters kept it close in the decider, but the American wasn't able to make much of a dent on Nole's serve. After almost two and a half hours Djokovic claimed his tenth Masters 1000 title, a record fifth this year, and became the first man in three decades to win the first tournament he played after climbing to the #1 spot. With just one match loss on his docket for 2011, he could be poised to restart the streak that got him so much attention to start the year.



A little further west another champion was trying to continue a streak she'd re-kicked off a bit more recently. Since returning to competition in June, Serena Williams won the third event she played two weeks ago in Stanford, and though she was still unseeded in Toronto she played like she'd never been gone. After dominating Julia Goerges in her opener, she survived scares from both Jie Zheng and Lucie Safarova to make the semis. Against world #4 Victoria Azarenka, a woman who'd given her fits in several of their previous meetings, she was convincing in victory.

On the other half of the draw a recently struggling Sam Stosur worked her way through the bracket. Since riding a victory over Serena at last year's French Open to the final, she hasn't seemed to have her feet under her. She'd failed to defend many of the points she'd racked up last year and had lost two first rounds coming to Canada. But she was in good form through Sunday's final, beating this year's Roland Garros champ Li Na in the third round and dismissing Carlsbad winner Aggie Radwanska in the semis.

But Serena was in control from the start against the Australian today. After a fairly close first set she turned up the juice in the second, firing off seven aces and winning all but one point on first serve. Allowing her opponent just one chance to break during the match -- one that was not converted, incidentally -- the former #1 claimed her first Rogers Cup since 2001 and guaranteed her ranking would climb even further out of the doldrums.



Both Serena and Novak have spent the week proving they are not challenges to be taken lightly, as if we didn't already know as much. And as they pick up the runs that were interrupted -- whether for minutes or for months -- they'll be bringing some serious momentum with them to the fast-approaching U.S. Open.

And if anyone else stands a chance against them, they'll need to bring something very special.

Seize the Reins

Well things sure got interesting at the Rogers Cup the last couple days.

As many of the sport's top players make their first appearances on court since Wimbledon -- or longer -- it's understandable that they'd be a bit out of practice. But I'm not sure anyone expected the routs we've seen, and some of those left standing may have been given the chance of their lifetime.

They just need to capitalize.

Two-time U.S. Open champion Kim Cljisters has been most out of practice, struggling with various injuries since the spring. She was leading Jie Zheng by a set in Toronto when a stomach injury forced her to retire -- not the best result so close to New York. This is the one case, though, where the victor may not reap too many spoils. Even though the #2 seed is out, Zheng doesn't face any easier a road -- next up for her is Serena Williams who's already won a title since returning to the game a month ago and looks to be in as good a form as when she left. What could have been a firework-filled section of the draw has suddenly turned into a much tamer quarter.

Things are a bit different in the other half of the bracket. World #1 Caroline Wozniacki, who won this title in Montreal last year, was dealt a devastating blow after her first round bye. Roberta Vinci, sitting at a career-high ranking at twenty-eight years of age, remained the cooler player during the nearly two-hour match and scored her first win over a top-five player in eighteen tries. Already the holder of three titles this year, she's showing she's more than able to hit with the big girls, and in a third round date with spotty Ana Ivanovic sparks could fly. It won't be completely smooth sailing, but the Italian could very well take advantage.

The men in Montreal have told a similar story. Two-time defending champion Andy Murray had put together a surprisingly strong spring after some disappointing results to start the year. But he was no match for world #35 Kevin Anderson on Tuesday. The South African took advantage of weak serving and a bounty of errors to break the Brit four times in the match, notching the win in under seventy minutes. His next opponent, Stanislas Wawrinka, has won their only meeting over a year ago, but if he can play at the level we know he's capable of, we could be in for another upset.

Probably most surprising, though, was the result that came out of last night's late match between Rafael Nadal and Ivan Dodig. The recent #1 has made at least the quarters at the Rogers Cup the last four times he's played and has won his opening match at every tournament since 2008. He ran away with the first set but squandered a lead in the second, allowing Dodig to pull even. And after more than three hours it was the Croat holding his arms up in victory. The twenty-six year old could stand to take real advantage of this win too. After a strong start to the year, he's lost his last three first rounds, but momentum is now clearly on his side. If he's recovered sufficiently he should be able to get past Janko Tipsarevic -- himself an upset winner over Fernando Verdasco last night -- on Thursday and really take Toronto by storm.

As always, some of these players are better primed to seize the opportunity they've been dealt. Whether they can take advantage remains to be seen, but the way things have been going in the Great White North, they may never have had a better chance.

The Workhorse

Is it just me, or does Caroline Wozniacki play a lot of tennis?

Okay, that's a pretty obvious statement -- but remember back in the spring when she remained entered in every clay court tournament after that terrible tumble she took in Charleston? Admittedly I was surprised that she rebounded so quickly and made a run to the quarterfinals in Paris. But she hasn't missed a beat through the summer, and now with just a few days left until the U.S. Open begins, she stands to play six straight weeks without the smallest of breaks.

Ah, to be young!

To be sure, she's been solid so far during that run -- she won the title in her homeland at the start of the month and followed it up with her first Premiertop-tier event trophy in Montreal this past week. And tonight she begins a campaign to three-peat as champion at the Pilot Pen, displaying no signs of fatigue.



Why all the hard work? Rumor has it that if Caro wins in New Haven and, clearly the longer shot, New York, she would replace Serena Williams as the #1 women's tennis player in the world -- not bad for a few month's work.

It's a bit surprising for a girl who doesn't have any huge weapons. At five-foot-ten, she's not the biggest on Tour and she doesn't deliver an inordinate amount of aces. But she can stay with her much stronger opponents -- her counter-punching has gotten her past players like Svetlana Kuznetsova, Francesca Schiavone and Flavia Pennetta, and she's been able to take sets from even greater champions like Serena and Justine Henin. At only twenty years of age, it's clearly a good sign that she can keep up with physically stronger and more-experienced contemporaries.

Of course, the #1 ranking is still several weeks and many wins away. The Dane will first have to get through a tougher-than-normal draw in Connecticut which includes heavyweights like Elena Dementieva and Sam Stosur. And she'll have to go one better during her fortnight in Flushing than she did last year. But as the top seed in New York she certainly has the motivation to at least make a deep run.

And if the past month is any indication, she most definitely has the energy!

Keep It Up!

It's been an interesting couple of weeks in women's tennis as several players have been able to advance deep into the draws of the U.S. Open Series tournaments, but so far none have repeated as champion.

It began in late July when Victoria Azarenka stunned Maria Sharapova at the Bank of the West Classic. A week later fallen French Open champ Svetlana Kuznetsova reasserted her power with an impressive win over Stanford semifinalist Aggie Radwanska. Sharapova made another run for the title in Cincinnati last week when she fell to Kim Clijsters in an emotional, rain-addled three-setter. Through today all those players, save Maria who injured her foot last Sunday, were still standing at the Rogers Cup.

It's a good sign in a world where the ladies' performances are often so spotty -- it seemed for most of the spring the champion at one tournament would fall early in the next. Paris victor Elena Dementieva retired during her first match in Dubai, Jelena Jankovic won just two matches in Miami the week after rolling to the title in Indian Wells and Francesca Schiavone has just a few "W"s since that magical run at Roland Garros.

But for the first time in a while, one of the top female players has a legitimate chance to capture a second trophy at a big event in less than a month. Radwanska, unfortunately, lost her third round match in Montreal today, but her vanquisher -- Sveta again -- Vika and Kim all have been playing solid ball.

If you go by the scoreboard alone, at first it looked like Kuznetsova was going the way of the others. She lost her opening match in Cincinnati, though in three sets and to the eventual finalist. Seeded again at the Rogers Cup, she still had a tough first round against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova but was able to survive. Her rematch with Radwanska was an even bigger scare as she dropped the middle set by a score of 6-1. But with the two-hour win she successfully put together only her third three-match win streak of the year and sets up a meeting with Jie Zheng, a woman she's never lost to before.

Victoria Azarenka had a similar slump during the spring. A finalist in Dubai, she followed up with three first-match losses and retired from three tournaments in April and May. Though she withdrew from the San Diego event due to exhaustion and lost her opener at the Western & Southern, she teamed with Maria Kirilenko to take the doubles crown in Cincinnati. So far in her three rounds in Montreal she's lost only a handful of games, defeating her doubles partner on Wednesday and "upsetting" ninth seeded Na Li earlier this afternoon. For her quarterfinal, she'll face Marion Bartoli, the woman she dethroned in Stanford after being down a set and a break -- certainly not the easiest match, but she has to have a better confidence than she did back then.

Speaking of comebacks, Kim Clijsters also won her last title after saving match points. Now at her best ranking since retiring more than three years ago, she received a bye in the first round at the Rogers Cup, but faced an unexpected challenge yesterday from qualifier Bethanie Mattek-Sands, who won their first set and led in the second. It was a much easier day at the office Thursday, though, as the defending U.S. Open champion took less than an hour to advance to the quarters. Of the three recent titleists, she faces the biggest threat tomorrow from Wimbledon finalist Vera Zvonareva, but something tells me she also has the best chance of avenging her recent loss.

With their recent solid performances it should be no surprise that these ladies all top the leaderboard for the U.S. Open Series. But more importantly, with the draw for the Slam so wide open this year, they're all among the contenders to win the big prize as well. They're each among the biggest hitters out there, and now with their confidence at near record highs, there's no reason for the momentum to end.

At least not until they meet each other!

Renewing My Interest

After yesterday's semifinals took out some of my favorite players in both Montreal and Cincinnati, I didn't think I really cared about today's championship matches.

Of course Andy Roddick suffered his third straight heart-breaking loss to Juan Martin Del Potro and fell just short of his third final in a row, and if you know me at all yout know I never want Andy Murray to win anything.

On the women's side I'm forever a fan of Elena Dementieva and was slightly annoyed that Jelena Jankovic won that marathon match despite earning fewer points and being blanked in the second set. I was also rooting for LA champ Flavia Pennetta, who was running on a fifteen match winning streak as she broke into the top ten for the first time in her career.

Needless to say, none of my picks were playing on Sunday. But somehow I found myself more invested than I thought I'd be while watching the finals.

In Montreal DelPo took on Murray in their sixth career meeting, with the Scot being the obvious favorite. In a huge reversal on the men's tour, Andy's win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga yesterday earned him enough points to surpass Rafael Nadal in the rankings and made him #2 in the world -- I'm so upset, that's all I can say on that subject. But with Juan Martin's performance last week in D.C. and his sequential drubbings of both Nadal and Roddick, I gave him a slight edge in the match.

And for the first hour and a half of today's match, he looked like he might capitalize. DelPo, who's been front-and-center this summer, edged Murray in the first set tiebreak and even broke back immediately after losing his serve to start the second. But after calling for the trainer late in the set, you got the feeling that Murray, who's been in training since Wimbledon, was the one in better shape. The new #2 won the next tiebreak and got off to a 4-0 start in the third as Juan Martin quickly unraveled. He closed it out quickly and captured his fifth title of the year, an outcome most expected -- and a surprising number were hoping for!



The bigger shock came in Cincinnati where a struggling Jankovic faced Dinara Safina for the championship. Safina has had a lot of trouble in finals in 2009, but that pales in comparison to the year Jelena has been having. Ranked #1 in the world a year ago, she's dropped four spots thanks to upsets by players like Sorana Cirstea, Melanie Oudin and Anna Chakvetadze. Dinara had won the pair's last two meetings, and now at the top of the women's Tour, she was clearly the favorite.

But I was amazed by how aggressive Jelena was from the get-go today. Never really known as a big server, she kept Dinara on the offensive almost the entire match, winning seventy-seven percent of her first attempts to Safina's fifty-nine. Though she gave back one break in the second set, she took it right back and remained so powerful that Safina was caught screaming at herself in frustration more than a few times. In spectacular fashion, Jankovic reminded us why she was once the best tennis player in the world and why she might just make her way back there. And I'll certainly be rooting for her come the U.S. Open!



So with the last major of the year just two weeks away, a few players are throwing their hats back in the ring and making sure we all keep watching.

If they continue playing like this, I certainly will!

The Next Big Thing

It's easy to get blindsided in life -- when you're so focused on a few big events, big names, big personalities, a couple of smaller victories are easy to miss. And while everyone is focused this week on the return of players like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, I feel there's another player waiting in the wings, just primed to make his big statement.

I've talked a lot about John Isner in recent weeks -- actually, I've been following his success closely over the last two years since he impressed every tennis fan at the 2007 Legg Mason Tennis Classic. While his performance at this year's tournament was just as inspiring -- it helped him climb to a career-high #55 ranking -- this week he crosses international borders for the first time since January, earning what he said on Saturday was a surprise entry to the Rogers Cup:

"I just found out this morning I was in the draw -- I was planning to go back home to Florida after this. My coach didn't bring his passport -- he has to fly to Florida and then fly to Montreal. Luckily for me I always keep my passport in my bookbag."

And in his first Masters event of the year, Isner was in good form. Playing countryman and fellow college star Jesse Levine, he won almost eighty percent of his second serves, fired off twice as many aces as his opponent and defended all three break opportunities. He's got a tough second round match against Mikhail Youzhny ahead of him, but I'm confident he has the goods to pull it off.

What's more interesting to me is the potential Isner still has to become one of the greats. At twenty-four John isn't exactly a youngster on Tour, but he came to the scene much later than a lot of guys ranked in the top ten, including twenty-two year olds Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic and D.C. winner Juan Martin Del Potro, who'll be twenty-one next month.

Instead of turning pro early, Isner enjoyed a successful college career at the University of Georgia, where he won the NCAA doubles title as a sophmore (he was runner-up the year before). He was the #1 ranked singles player in the NCAA for most of his senior year, leading his team to the 2007 championship and only losing one match in his final two years at school -- incidentally to the University of Florida's Levine.



As a pro he hasn't yet won any trophies -- his second place finish in D.C. is so far his best performance -- but he's learning the ropes pretty quickly. He's won a handful of challenger and futures titles and had beaten players like Gael Monfils, Tommy Haas, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in major tournaments. Plus he's got that one weapon few opponents want to face -- a huge serve. In twenty-eight matches he's shot 382 aces, winning more than three-quarters of his first serve points, and has saved more break points than anyone else this year.

And now he's playing smarter and with more confidence. After his loss to Andy Roddick in the Legg Mason semis, Isner was asked to compare his performance to his debut at the tournament.

"I feel like I'm a better player now, that's for sure. I was just kind of riding a wave of momentum in '07, and now I feel like I truly belong at this level. Maybe in '07 I didn't really think I could win that match -- I thought all along I could win today."

So maybe John took a bit of a detour on his way to the big leagues, a route that very few professional athletes take, but you can't fault him for that. And maybe in the end it will work to his advantage. If his recent performances are any indication, he's going to have a lot of success in the next few years and, I think, could get himself into the top tier before very long.

I will certainly be cheering for him all the way!