Rafael Nadal and all the tennis stars at Rogers Tennis Cup
August 7 – 15, 2010
TORONTO, Canada.- Spaniard Rafael Nadal, the best man in the racquets today, and all the tennis stars are coming to the Rogers Tennis Cup, to be held August 7 – 15, 2010 at the Rexal Centre, National Tennis Centre of York University. (www.rogerscup.com)
The Canada Masters, currently sponsored as the Rogers Cup, is an annual tennis tournament held in Canada. The men's competition is a Masters 1000 event on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tour. The women's competition is a Premier 5 tournament on the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) tour. The competition is played on hard courts.
The two competitions are currently held in separate weeks in the July–August period. The events alternate from year-to-year between the cities of Montreal and Toronto. In odd-numbered years, the men's tournament is held in Montréal, while the women's tournament is held in Toronto, and vice-versa in even-numbered years. The current singles champions are Andy Murray and Elena Dementieva.
The event has a long and illustrious history. The men's tournament began in 1881, and was held at the Toronto Lawn Tennis Club, while the women's competition was first held in 1892. Of the major tennis tournaments in the world today, only Wimbledon and the US Open have been around as long.
In 1989, two Canadian male tennis players, Grant Connell and Andrew Sznajder, reached the quarterfinals of the event. They were eliminated by Ivan Lendl and Andre Agassi during that round. Lendl has been the tournament's most successful singles player, reaching the final nine times and winning the title in 1980, 1981, 1983, 1987, 1988, and 1989. The tournament was sponsored for a number of years by tobacco brands. In the 1970s, Rothmans International was the chief sponsor, followed by Player's Limited in the 1980s, and then Du Maurier from 1997–2000. Federal legislation, however, then came into effect that banned tobacco advertising. Rogers took over as the new presenting sponsor.
The women's tournament has recently been moved to just before the US Open grand slam tournament and is a Premier 5 event. The WTA's rules for 2010 require each year-end top-10 player from 2009 to participate in at least four Premier 5 tournaments during 2010. Consequently, it is anticipated that the 2010 Rogers Cup will have a stronger field than in previous years when top players, such as Venus and Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova, often withdrew from the tournament at the last minute to rest for the upcoming US Open.
The ATP mandates participation for the men's tournament, as a "1000-level" series event.
The Toronto tournament is held at the Rexall Centre, York University, and the Montreal tournament is held at the Stade Uniprix both having the National Bank of Canada as its presenting sponsor. Beginning in 2011, the men's and women's Rogers Cup tournaments will be held in the same week but will continue to be held in different cities.