Montreal fans are among some of the most vocal and passionate on the ATP World Tour, which will create a rock concert atmosphere when home favourite Milos Raonic takes the court at the Coupe Rogers. The sixth seed will start his Montreal campaign against Adrian Mannarino or #NextGenATP Russian Daniil Medvedev. Raonic has enjoyed success on home soil before, finishing runner-up at this event in 2013 (l. Nadal) and reaching at least the quarter-finals in four of his past five attempts. Most importantly, he has moved past the injuries that plagued him at the beginning of the season and is able to play and practise the way he wants. “I’ve been healthy physically for a while now, which is nice,”...
Rafael Nadal could reclaim his standing as World No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings at the Coupe Rogers, but the Spaniard said he’s focused on the matches at hand for now. A semi-final finish in Montreal will allow top seed Nadal to unseat Andy Murray in the top spot, a position he hasn’t held since July 2014. But with several tricky opponents potentially standing between him and the last four, including home favourite Milos Raonic, red-hot John Isner and the always dangerous Juan Martin del Potro, Nadal said he can’t afford to look ahead. “I don’t even think about that now. I’m trying to have the right preparation now and that’s it,” said Nadal. “I’m going to keep trying...
Vasek Pospisil played a bit of street hockey when he was younger, but never had the experience of competing against NHL pros. On Saturday in Montreal, he had his opportunity at the annual Coupe Rogers Ball Hockey Challenge. “It’ll be interesting. I hope I don’t embarrass myself!” said Pospisil ahead of the friendly game at Stade Uniprix. Facing off against an NHL team that included Jonathan Drouin, Charles Hudon and Michael McCarron of the Montreal Canadiens, he more than held his own. The British Columbia native, who fondly recalls watching the Mario Lemieux-Jaromir Jagr-Ron Francis line as a kid (“that line was pretty crazy”), had his fair share of scoring chances and earned the praise of his hockey counterparts. ...
It was 22 minutes of mayhem. The match lasted two hours and five minutes, but the torturous time the ball was in play was just 21 minutes and 59 seconds. It must have felt like an eternity for Stan Wawrinka. Rafael Nadal defeated Wawrinka 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 on Sunday afternoon at Roland Garros. From 2-2 in the first set, it was basically game over. Overall, Nadal won 94 points to 57 (62%). The average point duration for the match was just eight seconds. Eight seconds of side-to-side, lactic acid domination. Eight seconds of Nadal running Wawrinka to whatever arrondissement of Paris he wanted him to go. Wawrinka is so dangerous when he gets to step into a ball, but he...
