Canada/Cincinatti Preview

All the big names will be back in action this week as the tours set up shop full time in North America, with the Rogers Cup in Toronto and Montreal this week and the big Cincinatti tournament next week.  For the first time, these will be combined events with the men and women playing them simultaneously, although for the Rogers Cup the men will be in Montreal while the women are in Toronto.  This complicates things a little bit for the women and their ranking points since their tournaments are flipped from last year, but after two weeks we'll be all square again, and at least the two tournaments carry the same point value.

Here are your big points defenders from the Rogers Cup:

Defending Champions:  Andy Murray (GBR) and Caroline Wozniacki (DEN)
Losing Finalists:  Roger Federer (SUI) and Vera Zvonareva (RUS)
Semifinalists:  Novak Djokovic (SRB), Rafael Nadal (ESP), Victoria Azarenka (BLR), Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS)
Quarterfinalists:  Tomas Berdych (CZE), Jeremy Chardy (FRA), Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER), David Nalbandian (ARG), Marion Bartoli (FRA), Kim Clijsters (BEL), Francesca Schiavone (ITA), Jie Zheng (CHN)

And the same for Cincy:

Defending Champions:   Roger Federer (SUI) and Kim Clijsters (BEL)
Losing Finalists:  Mardy Fish (USA) and Maria Sharapova (RUS)
Semifinalists:  Marcos Baghdatis (CYP), Andy Roddick (USA), Ana Ivanovic (SRB), Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS)
Quarterfinalists:  Nikolay Davydenko (RUS), Novak Djokovic (SRB), Andy Murray (GBR), Rafael Nadal (ESP), Akgul Amanmuradova (UZB), Marion Bartoli (FRA), Flavia Pennetta (ITA), Yanina Wickmayer (BEL)

Here are the players who made at least the quarters at both events last year (Rogers Cup/Cincinatti):
-Federer (F/Champ)
-Murray (Champ/QF)
-Clijsters (QF/Champ)
-Djokovic (SF/QF)
-Nadal (SF/QF)
-Bartoli (QF/QF)

This is the beginning of a stretch where Federer was ruthless last year and he has tons of points to defend.  Remember he also beat Djokovic on several occasions.  Rogers Cup F, Cincy Champ, US Open SF, Shanghai F, Stockholm Champ, Basel Champ, Paris SF, London Champ.  Not bad.

I was surprised, looking back, at some of the names that made it deep into these tournaments last year.  Will we have a similar story this year?  After Monday's action in Toronto, 4 seeded women are already gone including double quarterfinalist Bartoli.

I should be back later this week with an update.