Slice of history beckons Roanic, Pospisil
Canadians book Rogers Cup semifinal berths very differently
MONTREAL — Greg Sharko had to take a crash course in Canadian tennis history this week.
Sharko runs the ATP Tour’s media information desk at the Rogers Cup men’s tennis tournament and — with the success of the Canadian players at this year’s event — he has been forced to dig into the archives to answer questions like: When was the last time five Canadians won first-round matches in Canada’s premier event?
It has never happened since the Open era began in 1968. When was the last time Canada had two quarterfinalists?
That would be 1989, when Grant Connell and Andrew Sznajder reached the final eight. Who was the last Canadian to reach the semifinals?
That would be Montreal native Mike Belkin in 1969.
And, looking ahead, folks are wondering who was the last Canadian to win the event?
The drought isn’t as long as the one in Britain, where fans had to wait 73 years between Fred Perry’s win in 1936 and Andy Murray’s triumph this year, but you have to go back to 1958 to find Bob Bédard’s name on the list of winners. The Sherbrooke native also won in 1955 and 1957.
The interest in Canadian tennis has been generated by the success of Vasek Pospisil and Milos Raonic this week.
Canada is guaranteed a spot in Sunday’s final after Popisil and Raonic won quarter-final matches Friday to set up an allCanadian semifinal Saturday at 3 p.m.
Pospisil, a 23-year-old from Vancouver, was leading Nikolay Davydenko 3-0 in the first set Friday when the Russian unexpectedly retired. Davydenko said he had been suffering all week from bronchitis and found it difficult to breathe in the humid conditions at the Uniprix Stadium.
The 11th-seeded Raonic claimed his spot in the semis with a hard-fought 7-6, 4-6, 6-4 win over Ernests Gulbis of Latvia.
“I found a way to win,” said Raonic, whose return to his favourite hard court surface has allowed him to snap out of a three-month funk.
As has been the case all week, the Canadian players benefited from the support of the crowd, but Gulbis had a point when he suggested this crowd went overboard and was as much anti-Gulbis as pro-Raonic. Gulbis took exception to the crowd cheering his double- faults and screaming as he was about to serve.
Dismissing the fans as a hockey crowd, Gulbis was on thin ice when he said Canadian players only win at home, where the atmosphere resembles a Davis Cup match. While he acknowledged that Raonic is a good player who is on the cusp of a top-10 ranking, it was a slight to Pospisil, who could pass Gulbis in the rankings next week.
Raonic said he was pleased with his performance and said he expected a tough match against Gulbis. As for his next opponent, he noted that Pospisil had an edge over him in junior and earlier in their pro careers.
“I’ve prepared well for this,” Raonic said.
“I took time after Wimbledon and worked on my physical conditioning.”
“My goal was to reach the top 50 by the end of the year and now I’ve done that,” said Pospisil, who began the week at No. 71 in the ATP rankings and will be close to No. 40 even if he doesn’t go any further.