TORONTO, June 28, 2017 (Press Release)
The top stars of the tennis world are heading to Canada this summer, as Tennis Canada announced Wednesday the official player acceptance lists for the 2017 Rogers Cup presented by National Bank in Toronto and Montreal. Between both cities, 70 of the Top 75-ranked players will be competing for the prestigious Rogers Cup titles. World No. 1 Andy Murray and 10-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal headline the entry list in Montreal, where all of the Top 40 men will be in contention. In Toronto – in the 125th anniversary of the women’s tournament – 30 of the Top 35 women will be present, including world No. 1 Angelique Kerber, defending champion Simona Halep, and Roland Garros winner Jelena Ostapenko.
“We can’t wait to welcome the best players in the world back to Toronto,” said Karl Hale, Rogers Cup Toronto tournament director. “It has been an incredible season of women’s tennis already, and it’s going to be exciting to see how it will play out at Rogers Cup. This is one of the most important stops of the year for the players, and with the intense competition on court combined with the many off-court enhancements we have planned, we know our fans will have a fantastic time at the event this summer.”
“We have another amazing player field this year and our fans are in for a real treat with the current leaders of men’s tennis set to take on the next generation,” said Eugene Lapierre, Rogers Cup Montreal tournament director. “No matter who wins it will be a great champion to add to our illustrious list. We’re looking forward to welcoming all the players and the fans back to Montreal in a few weeks from now. It is shaping up to be one of our best tournaments yet.”
Since 2004, Murray, Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Roger Federer have held a near-monopoly on the Rogers Cup men’s title, with only the 2014 tournament (Jo-Wilfried Tsonga) won by another player. All five competitors will be back in Montreal this year to try and claim another Canadian championship, alongside players like world No. 3 Stan Wawrinka, and young guns Dominic Thiem and Alexander Zverev.
Among the many other athletes set to play in Toronto this August are former champions Caroline Wozniacki (2010) and Petra Kvitova (2012), plus world No. 3 Karolina Pliskova, former world No. 1 Venus Williams, and rising stars Elina Svitolina and Kristina Mladenovic.
Five Canadians have been confirmed so far for the main draw. Milos Raonic is the lone Canuck to earn a direct entry into the tournament thanks to his No. 6 world ranking. The 2013 Rogers Cup finalist, Raonic is the highest-ranked singles player in Canadian history and he will be a strong contender to go deep in the tournament once again.
The men’s event has also awarded three wild cards to Felix Auger-Aliassime, Vasek Pospisil, and Denis Shapovalov. Pospisil, a former Rogers Cup semifinalist, is the country’s second-ranked male player at world No. 75. Eighteen-year-old Shapovalov, currently ranked No. 164, will be making his second appearance at Rogers Cup, after debuting last summer with a first-round win over Nick Kyrgios in Toronto, while Auger-Aliassime will be playing the main draw for the first time. The 16-year-old recently became the seventh-youngest player to win an ATP Challenger tournament.
In Toronto, Canada’s top-ranked women’s singles player Eugenie Bouchard is the recipient of a wild card. Currently ranked world No. 61, she will be making her seventh straight Rogers Cup main draw appearance and looking to best her performance from last year when she made the third round. She joins Maria Sharapova, who was previously announced as a wild card.
Please click below to view the complete entry lists. The 56-player fields for both tournaments will be completed at a later date with the addition of the remaining wild cards and qualifiers.
TORONTO
MONTREAL
