Toronto minus big three offers opportunities

THE glaring absence of Big Three, Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner & Novak Djokovic at the  Canadian Open, detracts from the typically star-studded line up at a Masters 1000.

That said, Toronto opens the gate wider for those top seeds, seeking redemption, after below par performances at Wimbledon: Alexander Zverev, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Holger Rune.

It also presents an opportunity to young guns snapping at the heels of all of the above namely, Joao Fonseca, Jacob Mensik, Arthur Fils and Gabriel Diallo.

The Washington Open, immediately prior to Toronto, proved how proverbial underdogs can quickly take advantage of a derth of heavyweights in the Draw: World No 68, Davidovich Fokina cracked two Top 10 Players for the first time in his career, beating both Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton to arrive against all odds in the Final, where he squandered three championship points to allow Australian No 1, Alex De Minaur to be figuratively handed the trophy, on a silver platter.

As inconsolable as newly married “Fokie” was, in facing defeat at the hand of newly engaged “Demon”, the penny has dropped for the Spaniard- “These are guys....you need to kill three times to win the match point..” The cockroach analogy proved accurate on this occasion.

No 31 Anna Kalinskaya, applied as ruthless a mindset to outclass former US Open champion, Emma Raducanu;  6-4, 6-3, to book her berth in the Finals, only to be comprehensively squashed by Raducanu’s co of US Open Finalist, Leylah Fernandez- who had rescued her epic three-set semi against third seed, Elena Rybakina, from a set and a break down- yet took less than an hour to bag her first Tour title.

So what could Zverev and Tsitsipas, derive from these sudden surges in the careers of both Fernandez and Fokina, apart from his changing his coach and her improving her hitherto weak serve?

It turns out sun, sea and solace did it for Zverev, when after an invitation from one of the best coaches of all time, Uncle Toni (Rafa’s uncle) the German flew to Mallorca, to spend 10 days at the Nadal Academy, talking past midnight to Rafa himself.

The 22-time Major title-holder reminded Zverev of what it was like to face him on Court. This is the second life changing moment for Zverev involving Nadal. His ankle injury, incurred mid match versus Rafa in the 2022 Roland Garros Semis, a match the German looked likely to win, forced him to be sidelined for a year.

So far his Spanish sabbatical has seen him in good stead, Zverev pulled himself back from the brink of a first set tiebreak defeat, with a 52 shot rally, in his Toronto opener against Adam Walton and is still on track to clash with another first round Wimbledon fatality, Holger Rune, in the Quarters.

Unfortunately the same cannot be said for Tsitsipas in turmoil: He suffered another first round walloping, 6-4,4-6,6-2  from American Chris OConnell and will be in danger of falling outside of the Top 30 for the first time since 2018.

Brazilian Fonseca, too fell well short of expectation, post reaching Round three at his maiden Championships and was brought to heel by qualifier, Tristan Schoolgate.

Miami champion, Jacob Mensik, is still in the mix, as is last year’s finalist Andrew Rublev, who notched up his 250th Tour triumph, knocking off Frenchman Hugo Gaston 6-2, 6-3. 2nd seed, Taylor Fritz is tantalizingly close to securing his Last-Eight spot in all nine of these Masters 1000s, with Diallo, the last Canadian standing, standing once again in the American’s way.

There was no five set thriller a la Wimbledon when these two butted heads, but rest assured emotions, flags and rackets soar, whenever an American top dog squares up to a Canadian underdog, on Canadian soil.