Sunday proved a lucky day for Great Britain’s Andy Murray as he prevented world no.1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia from adding another Masters’ victory to the chest of his tennis titles. It was the first time since the 2013 Wimbledon final that Murray won against Djokovic. Murray’s career head-to-head count against the Serbian now stands at 9-19. Since Roger Federer skipped Montreal, he dropped to the third spot in the Emirates ATP ranking and Murray took the no.2 place on Monday. In doubles, USA’s Bryan brother won another title, when they defeated Canada’s Daniel Nestor and France’s Edouard Roger-Vasselin in a keenly contested final. But Rogers Cup’s biggest sensation came from Toronto, where Switzerland’s 18-year old Belinda Bencic ruled supreme. After beating the world no.1 Serena Williams in the semifinal, Bencic led 3-0 in the third set, when no.2 seeded Romanian Simona Halep retired and Bencic emerged as the 2015 champion. In doubles, no.3 seeds USA’s Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Czech Republic’s Lucie Safarova outplayed no.4 seeds Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia and Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik to clinch the title.
After winning the Masters at Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo and Rome, Djokovic met a hurdle at Montreal, where lost in the final to Scotsman Andy Murray in three sets. The match was full of break-point chances for both players; they won some and lost some. After Murray won the first set 6-4, it was Djokovic’s turn in the second with the same score. After breaking the Serb at the start of the third set, Murray looked like heading to victory at 5-2. But suddenly, the Scot wasted four match points and could only take the match on his fifth opportunity. Both players had 19 break chances each but while Murray converted 4 times, Djokovic could only manage to do it thrice. In the end, Murray won the final 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.
In the doubles final, USA’s no.1 seeds Bob and Mike Bryan defeated Canada’s Daniel Nestor and Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin 7-6, 3-6, 10-6 to score their 109th Tour victory. The Bryans win was highlighted by 74 points won by them as against 68 by the Canadian/French duo. Nestor/Roger-Vasselin were slower than the Bryans on crunch points and that cost them the match.
In Toronto, Swiss teenager Belinda Bencic defeated world no.3 Simona Halep 7-6, 6-7, 3-0(retired) and won her first Rogers Cup title. Bencic has been marvelous all week and her highpoint came on Saturday with a sensational victory over world no.1 Serena Williams. In the final, both Bencic and Halep were equally matched trading tiebreaks in the first two sets. But in torrid conditions with mercury shooting up, Halep could no longer continue as she was completely spent. She left the court, when trailing 0-3 in the third set and Belinda Bencic became the new champion. It was a great achievement for the 18-year old Bencic, whose victims included, Eugenie Bouchard, former world no.1 Caroline Wozniacki, Wimbledon finalist Sabine Lisicki, another former no.1 Ana Ivanovic before Bencic defeated Serena and Halep.
In the women’s doubles at Toronto, no.3 seeds USA’s Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic brushed aside no.4 seeds Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia and Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik 6-1, 6-2. The French/Slovenian pair could not show the same intensity, they displayed against top seeds Martina Hingis/Sania Mirza in in the semifinal and couldn’t stand against Mattek-Sands/Safarova, who proved too strong.
