The 2012 Rogers Cup (Canadian Masters) is scheduled to take place from August 6th to August 12th in Toronto, Ontario.
The draw has been released and, unfortunately for the event organizers and fans in the area, there are many top players who will be missing this year’s tournament. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and David Ferrer are three players currently in the Top 5 on the ATP Tour, none of which will be challenging for the coveted title in Toronto.
Federer missing the tournament is largely due to his success at the Olympics. He is scheduled to play in the gold medal match for singles on Sunday, August 5th. The prospect of facing Andy Murray in the final and then hopping a flight to Toronto couldn't have been too appealing for the soon to be 31-year-old. If Federer had suffered a defeat in the early rounds of London, I think he would be in the Toronto draw but the Olympics have apparently taken their toll on the world No. 1.
Nadal, the World No. 3, has not played a match since his second round loss at Wimbledon over a month ago. The knee injury that likely prevented him from making a deep run at the grass court slam also prevented him from participating in the London Olympics where he was the defending gold medallist. In missing Toronto, the Spaniard misses an opportunity to regain a large chunk of ranking points as he had just ten to defend at this year’s tournament.
David Ferrer misses the Canadian Masters for "personal reasons." However the Spaniard did make a run to the bronze medal match at the Olympics with Feliciano Lopez and he made the quarterfinals in the London singles event. You have to wonder if that accrued fatigue and the prospect of having to take a trans-Atlantic flight between London and Toronto played a role in Ferrer’s decision to miss the Masters event.
Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray are in the Rogers Cup draw, in fact they are the tournament’s top two seeds. If the seedings held up in Toronto, the quarterfinals would feature the following four matches:
(1) Novak Djokovic vs. (6) Juan Martin del Potro
(3) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs. (5) Janko Tipsarevic
(4) Tomas Berdych vs. (7) Juan Monaco
(2) Andy Murray vs. (8) John Isner
Murray, if his energy level remains high, does have a favorable draw with Berdych in his half, a player who has suffered some upsets lately. But that the London Olympics have affected the Rogers Cup in a negative way is clear in my opinion. The draw is missing some huge names that tennis fans in the region would definitely pay to watch.
Even with the players that are in the draw, you have to wonder if there are some early round exits coming for high seeds. Djokovic, del Potro, and Murray all made medal matches at the Olympics. Additionally Tsonga has to be tired following his silver medal run in the doubles draw with Michael Llodra.
The final could be Murray versus Djokovic but if it ends up being Marin Cilic versus Canadian Milos Raonic, I can’t say that I would be incredibly surprised.
Information Courtesy of
Erik Duhatschek, The Globe and Mail,
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/more-sports/federer-pulls-out-of-rogers-cup-but-murray-and-djokovic-are-guaranteed/article4460979/