There are many countries that host effectively a national tournament, and often, that country laments the last time one of their own has won that tournament.  When’s the last time a Frenchman was won the French Open (that would be 1983 when Yannick Noah won)?  When was the last time an Australian male won the Australian Open (that would be Mark Edmondson in 1976)?  When was the last American to win the US Open (that would be 2003 with Andy Roddick)?  And when was the last Brit to win Wimbledon?  Gotta go back to 1936 and Fred Perry.

But the last Canadian to win the Canadian Open (which is the Rogers Cup)?  That would be Robert Bedard in 1958.  The fact is, while Fred Perry is rightly acknowledged as a prominent player in tennis history, Robert Bedard, not so much.  The last very good Canadian singles player was Greg Rusedski, but because one of his parents was British, he decided to play for the UK.   Canada has a very solid doubles player in Daniel Nestor, but they don’t have a very good singles player.

Milos Raonic may turn out to be good.  But there are a few other youngsters that might do OK.

Today, wildcard Vasek Pospisil, a Canadian, was playing veteran Juan Ignacio Chela.  Chela isn’t a young guy, nor is he a quick player, but he seems to move up the rankings nevertheless.  He won the first set, but Pospisil took the second set.  However, Chela managed to break with a 4-2 lead in the third set.  Pospisil’s strategy is quite different from Chela.  One key statistic highlights the difference.  Chela had only one forehand winner late in the third set.  Pospisil had 20.  Chela was waiting for the error and Pospisil was looking to attack.

This strategy eventually worked.  Pospisil hit some drop shots and the slow Chela wasn’t able to win points when this happened.  Pospisil broke once to level the set, then broke again and held to complete the upset.

Bad news for the local.  He gets to play Federer next.  But the good news is Pospisil is only 21 years old which is considered pretty young as there’s no 17 year old prodigy breaking through.  The closest example of that now is Bernard Tomic.  But no one that is Nadal caliber on the horizon.  One expects it will happen.  Pospisil is unlikely that guy.

Isner was already playing Baghdatis around 6 PM and eventually won the first set.  However, the rains came and they had barely started the second set.  The evening match was to pit Nikolay Davydenko against the world number one, Novak Djokovic.  It didn’t happen, and will be the third match on Wednesday.  Federer will be the first match on center court around noon time in Montreal.

Nadal will play the late afternoon match.  Mardy Fish will play the evening match against the winner of Stepanek and Lopez (Feliciano, not Marc).  Stepanek and Lopez will finish their match in the afternoon, then have to rest and play in the evening.  Lower seeds don’t get the kind of consideration that a player like Djokovic does.