CAMELOT FANTASIES

Hello everybody, yes, it's that time again!  After the break following Wimbledon, 17 of the top 20 men in the world are in action in Toronto for  Rogers Cup.  Some of the players have played in some minor events following Wimbledon, but many of the top stars were doing interesting things like getting married, playing tennis in the Alps, relaxing on boats and water off the Spanish main, or just resting up for the North American hard courts.  Some of us following the sport also took a break and went off to do other things for a change.   But now it's back to the top level action in the Toronto Rogers Cup Masters 1000, and happy to be back with the gang at Camelot!

Unfortunately, 3 of the top 20 will be missing from the event, highest among them, and a bit of a shock withdrawal, 2nd ranked Rafael Nadal.  His team reported he sustained a right wrist injury during practice and will be out for at least this tournament and Cincinnati's Western & Southern Open, a real shame for the defending champion and his legions of fans in both events. It is unknown at this point whether he will appear in the US Open, but his doctors are taking it step by step and will reevaluate as time passes. It would be a real shame if the stalwart Spanish spartan slayer and defending US Open champion would be unable to participate there for the second time in 3 years. 

2009 US Open champion and still 8th ranked in the world, Juan Martin del Potro is still recovering from surgery on his left wrist he had after Dubai, and it seems all is going well. He was seen hitting his two handed backhand with a splint in place and he and his fans are hopeful of an earlier return with his good progress. 

The last of the three missing in the top 20 is Alexandr Dolgopolov who withdrew from Toronto with a knee strain.

So with Nadal withdrawn, everyone under him moves up a notch, similarly with del Potro and Dolgopolov.  This means Roger Federer is now seeded 2nd in the bottom half of the draw to #1 seeded Novak Djokovic's top half, and #4 seed Tomas Berdych joins #3 seed Stan Wawrinka as the projected semifinalists. David Ferrer, Milos Raonic, and Grigor Dimitrov, also move their seedings up by 1 with Nadal's absence to 5,6, and 7 seeds respectively, and Andy Murray moves up 2 notches to #8 seed with del Potro also missing, to take the last projected quarterfinalist spot.

Main draw below and also in the 1st post of this thread.


At first glance it looks like Novak Djokovic has a fairly tough draw, but some of the players there like Monfils and Tsonga and even Murray and Wawrinka haven't been in the best or more consistent form, while Roger Federer's draw appears fairly good, but he has a potential array of power players to deal with, like Janowicz (but out of form) from the start, Cilic, Isner, Raonic/Gulbis or Berdych, who are always dangerous in best of 3. 

Wawrinka's path looks excellent to the quarterfinal with a potential Dimitrov or Nishikori battle.  Berdych looks like a quarterfinal meeting with Raonic or Gulbis, but Bautista-Agut can also be troublesome for him.  Ferrer looks like he is heading toward a meeting with Johnny Isner,  and Andy Murray has his work cut out for him, possibly meeting Wimbledon's newest young Aussie star, 19 year old Nick Kyrgios who upset Rafael Nadal or Giraldo Santiago, who handled Murray easily on the clay in Madrid, in his first match. And it doesn't get easier from there with an in-form Gasquet or Pospisil or even Dr. Ivo Karlovic. IF he gets by all those players, he'll likely face Novak Djokovic.

It should be an interesting tournament, but is missing something with the 3 missing top 20 players. Let's hope they all recover and get back to playing when they are ready! Good luck and good health to all the players!

Respectfully,
masterclass

Great to see you back, Masterclass. I was getting worried . Bummer about Nadal, but it sets him up for a good 2015, I guess. I had forgotten about Dogopolov. He has pretty bad luck, too. Murray has been getting some strange draws lately, it's hard for him to get any kind of momentum going.