Video: Milos Raonic at the Rogers Cup

I was lucky enough to watch Milos Raonic on the practice courts at the Rogers Cup yesterday. Milos looked great and he seemed to be having a good time with his coach and his practice partner Peter Polansky.

Here's some video footage of his practice session:

To see photos of Milos and other top players practicing in Toronto click here.

Rogers Cup Photos and Recap: Qualifying Day 1

Back home from my first day of covering the Rogers Cup in Toronto. I'll be at the tournament every day this week, so check back often for photos, videos, and news. As expected, there were not many big name players on the practice courts today, as they either withdrew (Federer, Nadal, Roddick, Ferrer, Wawrinka, Almagro, and most recently Feliciano Lopez) or they're still at the Olympics (Djokovic and Murray). However, I did get a chance to see lots of great players sweating it out in the ridiculous heat of Toronto.

First up on Court 1 was Italian Fabio Fognini who defeated Canadian Pavel Krainik in the first round of qualifying.

I heard Milos was on the practice courts so I quickly ditched the Fognini match and headed over to watch everyone's favourite Canadian. He was practicing with fellow Canadian Peter Polansky.

Then Milos stated telling his coach some crazy story where he made monster-like movements with his arms.

While watching Milos on the practice courts I turned around to catch Bernard Tomic posing for photos with a bunch of fans. Made me like him a little more.  

Frank Dancevic Back on Track in Miami

Frank Dancevic in Miami (AFP Photo/Don MacKinnon)

A few years ago Frank Dancevic was the top ranked Canadian male tennis player with a ranking of 65th in the world. He had huge wins over Roddick, Del Potro and Verdasco, and Pete Bodo affectionately referred to him as "the poor man's Federer."

Unfortunately, Dancevic suffered from a few injuries, dropped in the rankings, and was replaced by Peter Polansky and, of course, Milos Raonic, as the next big thing in Canadian tennis.

I've always been a big fan of the way Frank plays, and I had the opportunity to watch him practice two years ago at the Rogers Cup, so I was excited to see that he had qualified for the Sony Ericsson Open, and then won his first round match against Jeremy Chardy.

Next up for Dancevic is American Mardy Fish. Dancevic will need to play his very best if he wants to move into the next round, but it's definitely possible—especially since Frank is coming into the match on a 10-match winning streak and Mardy hasn't been playing all that well recently.

It would be great for Canadian tennis to have another strong male in the mix, so I'm hoping Frank can keep it up and win a few more matches.

US Open Drama: Vika, Berdych, Polansky

• Canadian Peter Polansky pulled off a big upset yesterday when he defeated Juan Monaco in a straight sets victory. Polansky has played better than he ever has this summer, and if he keeps it up I think he has a really good chance of taking out James Blake in the next round. 

• The biggest upset of the tournament so far has to be the loss of Tomas Berdych to Michael Llodra.  Berdych was one of the favourites to make it until at least the quarterfinals, and for him to go out in the first round after such a successful year has got to be tough. Llodra will play Hanescu in the second round, and he should have a great chance of winning that match and moving on.

• In yet another upset, American Ryan Harrison defeated 15th seeded Ivan Ljubicic in a four set match. Harrison will play Ukranian player Sergiy Stakhovsky in the next round. 

• Victoria Azarenka collapsed on the court today in her match against Gisela Dulko, and was forced to retire. Vika later said that she was warming up in the gym before the match and fell during her sprints, which caused her to hit her head. She started to feel dizzy during the match, and after she collapsed she was taken to the hospital for testing and was diagnosed with a mild concussion. 

Querrey Likes Girls...and Peter Polansky

Four Canadians in US Open Main Draw

Canada's Peter Polansky

The Canadians had a great day today with Peter Polansky, Milos Raonic, and Rebecca Marino winning their matches and booking places in the US Open main draw.

Peter Polansky will have a tough first round match against the 30th seed, Juan Monaco of Argentina. Milos Raonic's first match should be a little easier than Polansky's as his next opponent will be Carsten Ball, the world number 146 from Australia. Both Canadians will be playing against opponents who are ranked significantly higher than them, especially in the case of Polansky, so they will need to play their very best to advance to the second round.

Aleksandra Wozniak did not need to go through qualifying as her ranking of 53 was high enough for her to be placed directly into the main draw. Her first round opponent will be Sally Peers, the 202nd ranked player from Australia. Wozniak has a good chance of winning her first round, but unfortunately she'll likely have to play Kim Clijsters in the second round. World number 181, Rebecca Marino, will play Ksenia Pervak from Russia who is currently ranked 100th in the world.

Congratulations to all of the Canadian players, and let's hope they can keep up their winning streaks for at least a few more matches!

Canadians Still Alive at the US Open

Quite a few Canadian players are still alive on the final day of the US Open qualifying tournament, and with one more match win they will earn a spot in the main draw.

The following matches featuring Canadians will take place on Saturday August 28th:

Valerie Tetreault (CAN) vs. Akgul Amanmuradova (UZB)

Stephanie Dubois (CAN) vs. Irina Falconi (USA)

Rebecca Marino (CAN) vs. Sharon Fichman (CAN)

Frank Dancevic (CAN) vs. Kei Nishikori (JPN)

Peter Polansky (CAN) vs. John Milliman (AUS)

Milos Raonic (CAN) vs. David Guez (FRA)

The match winners will join Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak in the USO main draw.

Rogers Cup Wrap-Up

I had such a great time at the Rogers Cup this week. I think Toronto did a great job of hosting the event and it seemed like the new players lounge was a huge success with the players and coaches. The best part of the week for me was getting to watch so many of the practice sessions, and getting to see some great matches on the outside courts. Of course the matches I got to watch on center court were amazing too, especially Federer vs. Chela, Nalbandian vs. Ferrer, Nadal vs. Wawrinka, and Soderling vs. Gulbis.

I'm also really proud of the way the Canadians played this week. Peter Polansky had a huge win over Jurgen Melzer in the first round, and although he went out to Victor Hanescu in the second round, we got a glimpse of how good Polansky can be. Frank Dancevic, arguably Canada's highest profile male singles player, wasn't so lucky and was unable to make it past Stan Wawrinka, his talented first round opponent.

The Canadian doubles team of Pospisil and Raonic had a huge win with the defeat of the much-hyped doubles team of Nadal and Djokovic in the first round. The Canadians were unable to make it past their second round opponents, but they have to be happy with their high-profile first round win over the top two singles players in the world. The best Canadian doubles player, Daniel Nestor, made it to the quarterfinals, but was defeated and unable to move onto the semis.

And huge congratulations to Andy Murray for winning the singles title. He played amazing tennis all week beating Nalbandian, Nadal, and Federer on the way to winning his second consecutive Rogers Cup championship.  Federer also played some good tennis this week beating Berdych and Djokovic on the way to the final, and the win over Djokovic also got him his number two ranking back, which will be important going into the US Open.

The men will be in Cincinatti next week with the women coming to Montreal. Lots of good tennis still to come and then we've got the US Open. Exciting!

More Photos from the Rogers Cup!

Novak Djokovic on the practice courts

Victor Hanescu posing with fans

Canadian Milos Raonic practicing on Aug. 11

Jeremy Chardy in match against Fernando Verdasco

Rafa Nadal serving in match against Stan Wawrinka

Davydenko practicing on Aug. 10

Soderling taking a drink break during practice

Michael Llodra practicing on Aug. 10

Shirtless Robredo practicing with a shirtless Almagro

Roger Federer on the practice courts on Aug. 10

Canadian Peter Polansky practicing with Federer

Stan Wawrinka on the practice courts