Raonic fourth seed at Rogers Cup
TORONTO — Milos Raonic could face two other Canadians on his way to the semifinals of the Rogers Cup.
Raonic, of Thornhill, Ont., is seeded fourth at the men’s tournament, which begins Monday at Toronto’s Aviva Centre. The top eight seeds get a bye into the second round.
The draw for the Masters 1,000 tournament was revealed Friday at Rogers Centre.
Frank Dancevic, of Niagara Falls, and Vancouver’s Vasek Pospisil are also in Raonic’s quarter of the draw.
Dancevic is slated to play American Sam Querrey in the first round while Pospisil will face Jeremy Chardy of France. Querrey made headlines earlier this month at Wimbledon when he upset World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the third round.
On the other side of the bracket, Steven Diez of Toronto will play Kyle Edmund of Britain and 17year-old Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, plays Australian Nick Kyrgios.
Shapovalov is making his Rogers Cup debut after winning the Wimbledon boys’ title.
On the women’s side, Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard will face veteran Lucie Safarova in the first round of the women’s event in Montreal. Safarova defeated Bouchard in their only previous meeting.
The tournament draw, which was held Friday at Uniorix Stadium, also saw Aleksandra Wozniak of Blainville, Que., matched with Italian Sara Errani while Francoise Abanda of Montreal meets Elina Svitolina of Ukraine.
Play begins Monday at the hard court event.
Raonic could face Djokovic in the semifinals. Djokovic is the only seed higher than Raonic in their half of the draw. Second-seed Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland and third-seed Kei Nishikori of Japan are both in the other half.
Three of the top-five ranked men’s players — Nadal, Murray, and Roger Federer — announced their withdrawal from this year’s Rogers Cup in the past week.