MONTREAL, August 5, 2017
The Rogers Cup presented by National Bank official draw took place on Friday at Uniprix Stadium. For the first time since 2011 in Monte-Carlo, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer find themselves at opposite ends of the draw as the tournament’s first and second seeds respectively.
Top-seed Nadal, who would reclaim World No. 1 in the ATP Rankings on August 14 by reaching the semi-finals in Canada, will open his Montreal campaign against either Borna Coric or a qualifier.
Several first-round matches promise to be quite interesting, including the all-Canadian match-up between Peter Polansky from Thornhill and Vasek Pospisil of Vancouver. In 2013, Pospisil experienced a dream run in Montreal where he eliminated US-American John Isner and Czech Tomas Berdych. Polansky, meanwhile, has had recent success on the professional tour after reaching three consecutive finals at ATP Challenger events in Canada. The winner of this match will face-off against Federer in the second round, a match which will be disputed during the day session on Wednesday, August 9. This will be Federer’s first time playing in Montreal since 2011 and his first match since capturing his 19th Grand Slam title at Wimbledon.
The young Canadian Denis Shapovalov will be opposing a qualifier in his first-round match. The 18-year-old will be looking to repeat his performance from last year when he defeated Nick Kyrgios in the opening round. His match will be played on Centre Court on Tuesday afternoon. Finally, world no. 194 Brayden Schnur will take on Frenchman Richard Gasquet.
Milos Raonic, who received a first-round bye as the tournament’s seventh seed, will be awaiting the winner of the match opposing Daniil Medvedev of Russia and Adrian Mannarino of France. Raonic is in search of his first title on the ATP Masters 1000 Tour. He came close to capturing the crown in 2013, but was stopped by Nadal in the final. The Spaniard will play his first match against the winner between Borna Coric and a qualifier.
Milk Family Weekend continues on August 5 and 6
Qualifying matches will begin on Saturday as part of the Milk Family Weekend. Until August 6, fans will have free access to the Rogers Cup site where they can see their favourite players in action as well as participate in a variety of scheduled activities including the Sportsnet Ball Hockey Challenger presented by Knapper. The match will take place on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. on National Bank Court and will feature prominent NHL players such as Jonathan Drouin, Jonathan Huberdeau and Alex Burrows.
