Mayor trades tennis strokes with top Canadian Raonic
Spectators at Uniprix Stadium cheer Coderre for facing Rogers Cup hopeful
Denis Coderre is becoming the George Plimpton of politicians.
After hopping on a bike to navigate a portion of the Tour de l’Île, the Montreal mayor expanded his horizons Friday when he stepped on centre court at Uniprix Stadium and traded tennis strokes with Canada’s No. 1 player, Milos Raonic.
About 1,000 spectators cheered Coderre as he showed the results of a month- long crash course in the game. Coderre’s strokes need improvement, but the mayor was proud that he could move on the court after losing 50 pounds on his fitness regimen.
Coderre was brave enough to face Roanic’s vaunted serve. The mayor got his racket on a couple of the booming shots and even returned one after he was handed an oversized promotional racket.
“I’ve always loved Montreal and it’s great to be out there,” said Raonic, who is from Thornhill, Ont., but spent some of his formative years at Jarry Park’s National Training Centre.
Raonic also said it’s great to be healthy after dealing with a nerve injury in his foot that required surgery.
“I’ve left the injury behind,” said Raonic, who hasn’t played since a third- round loss to Australian Nick Kyrgios at Wimbledon. “I’m going to take it one match at a time.”
The withdrawal of David Ferrer from the Rogers Cup men’s event moved Raonic i nto the No. 8 seed in the 56- player main draw and gives him a bye before he meets the winner of a first- round match between two hard- serving giants — six- foot- 11 Ivo Karlovic and six- foot- eight Jerzy Janowicz.
While the No. 8 seed gives Raonic a potentially easier route to the quarter- finals, he said he would have appreciated an extra match.
Coderre was greeted warmly by the fans who responded to the public- address announcer’s mention that the Jarry Park facility was the Expos’ first home and that Coderre is working to bring Major League Baseball back to the city.
When questioned by the media, Coderre said he didn’t want to comment on his negotiations with MLB executives, but he ex- tolled Montreal as a great sports city and said baseball will return in some form. The mayor also noted his association with the tennis stadium, which grew up around the former baseball park. Coderre was the federal sports minister when Ottawa provided a large chunk of the money to build the stadium.
Raonic is the only Canadian with a direct entry into the Rogers Cup main draw, but four other players have received wild- card entries.
Vasek Pospisil, from Vancouver by way of the National Training Centre, will open against one of the qualifiers from this weekend’s action. Davis Cup veteran Frank Dancevic of Niagara Falls, Ont., will play Pablo Andujar of Spain, while Philip Bester of Burnaby, B. C., plays Gilles Muller of Luxembourg, and former world No. 1 junior Filip Peliwo, also of Vancouver, faces Sergiy Stakhovsky from Ukraine.
Three other Canadians — Peter Polansky of Thornhill, Ont., Brayden Schnur of Pickering, Ont., and Toronto’s David Volfson — are entered in the qualifying draw and they will be in action beginning at 10 a. m. Saturday. The second and final round of qualifying will be held Sunday with seven players advancing to the main draw.
Weekend admission to the grounds is free — there’s a $ 10 charge for the stadium — and that allows fans to see a variety of players as well as a couple of special events.
On Saturday at 2 p. m. there will be a ball- hockey game on the grandstand court with tennis players facing a group of National Hockey League players, including the Canadiens’ Lars Eller. Sunday’s grandstand feature at 2 p. m. will be a soccer game between tennis players and members of the Montreal Impact.