Rogers Cup Men's Semifinal Prediction: Raonic vs. Pospisil

  

Vasek Pospisil after defeating Berdych

Yesterday on Twitter I asked if anyone had predicted a Raonic vs. Pospisil semifinal, and then I claimed that anyone who said they had was a liar. But apparently I was wrong...

So thank you Jared Pine (@JaredPine) for sending me this and making me feel bad that I had less faith in the two Canadian boys than this ATP Fantasy fellow. (But seriously, who makes that pick?)

On with my semifinal prediction...

Vasek Pospisil vs. Milos Raonic 

All I can say is you did good Canada. You did really good. I don't know if it was the rambunctious and very biased Canadian crowd that helped these two reach the semis, but even if the crowd helped them along, they both had to play great tennis to end up in the final four. That's right—two of the final four players at this tournament are from Canada. 

Vasek has played some amazing tennis and his excitement is infectious. I was on the National Bank Court while Pospisil was playing Berdych and the atmosphere was incredible. The other players have been describing the experience of playing a Canadian player here as being the same as playing a Davis Cup match, and I would have to agree. And no one has revved up the crowd more than Vasek Pospisil. He genuinely seems so surprised and elated to be in the position he's in and when he walks into his press conferences he can't stop grinning. It is for this reason that I think Vasek is going to defeat Milos today. 

Milos has been the better player for the past few years, so all the pressure is on him to win this semifinal match. If he doesn't win, it will only add to the talk that Milos has been hyped up too much and that he still hasn't produced the results that people expected of him. On the other hand, just reaching the semis is an unbelievable achievement for Vasek, so no matter what happens today, this will be seen as a breakthrough tournament for him.

Milos is also the more subdued player and I think the crowd will get behind Vasek and his endearingly enthusiastic personality. That's not to say that I don't think the crowd will support Raonic, because they will. I just think that as the match goes on that Vasek might get a little more support.

I'll take Pospisil defeating Raonic in three sets. But no matter what the result is we'll have a Canadian in the final of a Masters 1000 event...and that is a big deal.

Rogers Cup Photos: Nadal, Raonic, Del Potro, Haas

Lots of great players on the grounds yesterday at the Rogers Cup in Montreal and another fantastic day for Canadian tennis with Vasek Pospisil defeating Radek Stepanek, and Milos Raonic beating Mikhail Youzhny.

Today should be even better with Nadal vs. Janowicz first up on Center Court, followed by Murray vs. Gulbis, Del Potro vs. Raonic, and Djokovic vs. Istomin. I'll also be making my way over to the National Bank Court to watch Pospisil try to take down Berdych.

Here are some photos from the Rogers Cup so far...

First up we've got Tommy Haas stretching it out during his practice session.

Then we've got Frank Dancevic and Jerzy Janowicz in their second round match. Jerzy won in three sets.

What's Not to Love About Vasek Pospisil?

I love Vasek Pospisil. He might actually be my favourite Canadian tennis player. Vasek just always seems so happy and enthusiastic...and he rarely hides his excitement when he's played a great match.

For example, remember when Pospisil and Raonic played Djokovic and Nadal in a doubles match at the 2010 Rogers Cup? And the young Canadians (who were completely unknown at the time) actually won? Look how excited Pospisil is! 

And then the moment when he truly won me over—when he beat Chela in the first round of the 2011 Rogers Cup and celebrated like he'd just won Wimbledon...

Of course, part of his excitement after the Chela match was that his next round opponent would be none other than his idol Roger Federer. See him fanboying Goffin-style in this interview at the 3:20 mark:

And in this video around the 1:45 mark...

Which leads us to the recent tour of his Roland Garros apartment (which was actually the only video I'd planned on putting in this post, but clearly I got distracted), where Vasek is, of course, funny and charming.

Seriously, I need him to break into the top 50 as soon as possible, so I can watch him play all the time.

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!