Canadians at the US Open [Update]
Vasek Pospisil is the lone Canadian left in the Singles draw at the US Open. Both Rebecca Marino and Aleksandra Wozniak lost their opening round matches, and Frank Dancevic retired from his first round match after completing the Qualifying Grand Slam this year.
Mission ImPospisil is trying to keep Canadian hopes alive and is currently on Court 10 with Lukas Rosol (CZE). You can view live scores here. Also in action today is Daniel Nestor and Max Mirnyi (BLR), who are seeded No.2 in the Men's Doubles draw. Canadian Adil Shamasdin is in the same section of the Doubles draw with Nestor, who is teamed up with Slovakian Igor Zelenay.
Rebecca Marino will be playing Women's Doubles as well. Her teammate is American Christina McHale, who defeated Aleksandra Wozniak in three sets on Monday.
I wonder if that'll come up in conversation before they hit the courts.
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Canadians Qualify for the US Open
Raonic may have withdrawn from the US Open, but we have some Canadian players who have qualified for the main draw at the final major of the year.
On the Men's side, Frank Dancevic will face Marsel Ilhan (TUR) in the first round. The two have yet to meet, but if you recognize Ilhan's name it is because Raonic defeated him earlier this year at Indian Wells. Coming off a solid performance in Montreal, Vasek Pospisil has qualified for the main draw and will have Lukas Rosol (CZE) as his first round opponent.
As for the Women, only Aleksandra Wozniak was able to make it through the qualifying rounds. She will face the young American Christina McHale to open the tournament. Rebecca Marino was entered directly into the main draw and will be up against Gisela Dulko (ARG) in the first round.
Wozniak vs. McHale is currently the only match involving a Canadian scheduled to go ahead on the first day. Of course, that is subject to change due to the effects of Hurricane (now Tropical Storm) Irene.
EDIT: According to this update, the tournament should start on (or close to) schedule tomorrow with play starting as early as possible. Good news for ticket holders and stay-at-home fans alike!
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Raonic Withdraws from US Open
According to this tweet, Milos Raonic has decided to pull out of the US Open and delay his return until Canada's Davis Cup World Group Playoff with Israel in September.
This is bittersweet news, as we were hopeful for a comeback at the US Open next week. However, Raonic says he is "feeling great" and that he is hard at work with his coaches preparing for Davis Cup. Milos was an integral part of the Canadian team that defeated Mexico in the first round of Group 1 player earlier this year, but was unable to travel with the team for the tiebreak against Ecuador.
Playing for Canada in Davis Cup will be a great way for Raonic to come back, even if it means the fans will have to wait a little longer for his return. If nothing else, it is good to have a definite outline for when Milos will be able to compete again. So in the coming weeks as we are watching the US Open and wishing Raonic was there lighting it up with his serve, we can at least look forward to his return in the very near future. Hopefully he will be able to finish strong this season and put an exclamation point on what has been a great year overall, despite the obvious setbacks.
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Milos Raonic to play Pete Sampras in November
Milos Raonic announces that he will play against Pete Sampras in an exhibition tennis match at the Air Canada Centre (ACC) in Toronto, ON - 17 November 2011
Milos Raonic wasn't able to play at the Rogers Cup in Montreal this year, but that didn't stop him from making news. During the broadcast on Rogers Sportsnet, Raonic announced that he will playing an exhibition match this Fall versus hall-of-famer and tennis legend Petros "Pete" Sampras at the Air Canada Centre (ACC) in Toronto. He announced that the match with Pete Sampras is scheduled for November 17th of this year and that he was excited about the opportunity. The event has yet to be listed on the ACC website, and there is no word as to when tickets will go on sale.
While on his way to winning his first ATP tour title in San Jose, Raonic got to meet Sampras. The tennis legend gave the young upstart some advice on his game, later saying that Raonic is "the whole package". Needless to say, the exhibition match between these two will be a hot ticket in the fall.
As for when Raonic will make his return to competitive play after the Wimbledon injury, there is still no definite timeline. We are hopeful that Milos will be ready for the US Open, which is fast approaching. Despite the surgery, Raonic is optimistic about his return stating that he will be able "to reach another level" when he comes back.
Obviously, we are very eager to see that.
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Rogers Cup 2011 Semi-Finals and Finals from Toronto and Montreal on CBC (and streaming on CBC.ca)
I have been wondering what happened to the stream on SportsNet.ca ( http://www.sportsnet.ca/tennis/2011_rogers_cup ) and it turns out CBC is streaming the live coverage of the 2011 Rogers Cup Semi-Finals and Finals instead of Rogers SportsNet. CBC has their act together for streaming much better than SportsNet and it seems the actual quality of the stream is better also... good stuff. The live stream from CBC Sports can be found here:
http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Sports/Live_Streaming/1248955900/ID=2053367237
Currently this is the link points to the Semi-Final in Toronto between Victoria Azarenka and Serena Williams, not sure if it will link to the Djokovic and Tsonga Semi-Final directly, but surely you can find it from that linke somehow. Cheers!
-WACB
Pospisil Advances to 2nd Round
Displaying some late match heroics, Vasek Pospisil came back from a set down to Juan Ignacio Chela (ARG) to win 4-6 6-3 6-4. The Canadian wild card advances to the second round at the Rogers Cup in Montreal.
Unlike Erik Chvojka yesterday, Pospisil was able to complete the comeback and get the win even after getting down a break in the third set. Vasek hit some crucial aces late in the third and was solid when finishing points at the net. Of course, he hit plenty of forehand winners throughout the match but ran up a high error count in the process. Chvojka, who also gained entry in the main draw as a wild card, lost in three sets to Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR) in the first round on Monday.
Mission ImPospisil continues tomorrow with Vasek running up against the No.3 seed Roger Federer (SUI) in the second round. Sportsnet will have live coverage of all the action, and will feature a special guest commentator over the next couple of days: Milos Raonic.
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At Rogers Cup in Toronto
I write this from the stands at the Rogers Cup in Toronto, the first night for the Ladies here in Round 1. After the current match (Goerges and Jankovic) Rebecca Marino will be up for her 1st Round match. I will try to take a lot of pictures and perhaps some video to show what it's like here at Rexall Centre. I'm sitting three rows back in the corner to the ref's right.
Currently Julia is up a break and about to be another in the first set against Jelena Jankovic.