Attendance record set at Rogers Cup

The men’s Rogers Cup set a record for attendance at a one-week tournament of 216,097 spectators.

Tournament director Eugene Lapierre said Sunday it topped the 213,760 who attended in 2011.

The presence of Wimbledon champion Roger Federer and a run to the semifinals by Canadian teenager Denis Shapovalov certainly helped pack fans into Uniprix Stadium.

“There was a tennis craze in our city in the last few weeks and it shows in our attendance numbers,” Lapierre said. “There were compelling storylines throughout the tournament and the Montreal crowd once again demonstrated their love of tennis.

“It has been a while since we experienced such excitement for our sport.”

The 18-year-old Shapovalov beat world No. 2 Rafael Nadal in the third round earlier in the week and lost to fourth seed and world No. 8 Alexander Zverev in the semifinals on Saturday night.

Zverev went on to beat Federer in the final on Sunday.

In the doubles final, fifthseeded Frenchmen PierreHugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut defeated seventhseeded Rohan Bopanna of India and Ivan Dodig of Croatia 6-4, 3-6, 10-6.

Meanwhile, Elina Svitolina defeated Caroline Wozniacki to win the Rogers Cup in Toronto. Announced attendance for the final was a nearsellout of 7,997. The total for the week was 125,777.

In the doubles final, topseeded Russians Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina posted a 6-0, 6-4 win over eighth-seeded Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Kveta Peschke of the Czech Republic.