TENNIS in DEPTH.

This years Rogers Cup will be played in Montreal and Toronto, the women in Montreal and the men in Toronto. It is a new format for 2010, and one that will be adopted as the norm with the two tours alternating between the two cities each season.

The events have attracted most of the top players, and the prize money reflects how serious both the Men and Women players have become about this Canadian event. It is a top tier event on both tour calendars.

As with most events the Tournament Director holds a few places open for wild card entries which are filled as the opening date approaches. The host country will give wild cards to ‘home grown’ players or others who may be coming back from injury. Otherwise the entrants are established based on their current WTA or ATP rakings.

In the case of Ana Ivanovic, who won 3 years ago, she has not received a wildcard and will only make the main draw if she is successful in the qualifying rounds. She is ranked #65,(the field is a 64 person draw) and is in a well publicised slump. Having to qualify, which means she will have to play 3 or 4 matches to reach the main draw, may be the best news for her and her game. She has played only a handful of competitive sets of tennis in the past 3 months, and has shown that she is not mtach ready as she has lost in the early rounds of her most recent events.

There is always the chance that a player in the main draw will pull out, and Ivanovic as the top seed in the qualifying rounds could be elevated to the main draw.

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