Events / Sean Calvert / 10 August 2009 /

Fresh from predicting Juan Martin Del Potro's win in LA last week, Sean Calvert looks ahead to the Masters Cup event in Montreal starting today. The returning Roger Federer is obviously the man to beat but Del Potro could once again be the man most likely to challenge...

It was a very profitable week at the Washington 500 as Juan Martin Del Potro eventually overcame a dogged opponent in Andy Roddick and the searing heat to retain his trophy at the nice price of [5.5].

There's no time to rest on laurels though as the ATP action continues straight away in Canada with the Rogers Cup - an ATP 1000 event these days.

As Canada's only event of note on the tour the cup alternates between Toronto and Montreal and this year it's back in Montreal where Novak Djokovic was the winner last time out in 2007.

The courts here are the same surface as the US Open, so conditions are going to be fast and the tennis balls of choice this year are the Penn Masters series.

Number one seed and tournament favourite is new dad Roger Federer at around [3.0] and as it appears is customary these days Fed has been handed what seems a rather comfortable draw.

The Swiss maestro, despite having two Rogers Cups to his name and an 8-2 record in Montreal, has only ever won the title in Toronto so he will be keen to correct that here this week.

Reports suggest that the world number one is in great shape coming into this event and I can't imagine the early opposition of the likes of Igor Kunitsyn, Gilles Simon, Radek Stepanek, Stan Wawrinka or Nicolas Kiefer causing Fed too many problems.

That said, Kiefer does have a surprisingly good record in this event.

The German's mother comes from Montreal and perhaps the home cooking inspires him to greater than normal powers. Whatever it is he has reached the Rogers Cup semi finals twice and was beaten in the final in Toronto last year by Nadal.

Kiefer aside, Federer's main threat could come from Jo Wilfried Tsonga ([40.0]) who was a victim of the John Isner serve last week in Washington, but who should find conditions here suited to his power game.

The adjacent section to Federer is where Andy Murray ([4.6]) has been placed to make his return to the tour after a spell of hardcore training in Miami.

The Scot has a good chance of overtaking Nadal ([8.6]) as world number two during this US hardcourt swing, as the Spaniard has a whopping 3,150 ranking points potentially coming off in the next few weeks.

And with Nadal's knees still reportedly causing him all sorts of problems at the moment, Murray could well rise to number two sooner rather than later. The Scot's quest to do just that has been somewhat hampered by a tricky looking draw that includes many potentially difficult hurdles to overcome.

Murray begins with the winner of Yen Hsun Lu, who beat him at the Olympics, and big serving Stuttgart champion Jeremy Chardy.

He also has former world number ones Lleyton Hewitt ([110.0]), Juan Carlos Ferrero ([120.0]) and Marat Safin ([380.0]) to contend with as well as Tommy Haas ([130.0]), Fernando Gonzalez ([120.0]) and Ivo Karlovic ([230.0]).

Throw in Gael Monfils ([200.0]) and dual clay winner Nikolay Davydenko ([42.0]) into the mix as well and that is one tough section to negotiate.

The bottom section of the draw looks the one to be on as far as value is concerned and if he is not too physically spent after Washington, Del Potro looks to have been given a handy draw for the second week in a row.

The Argentine racked up four wins in a row this time last year, so he clearly has the stamina for back-to-back title tilts and at around [13.0] he looks set to go close again this week.

The way that Del Potro came back from a set down in ridiculous heat when playing poorly against an opponent on top of his game in Andy Roddick was impressive and will stand him in good stead in Montreal.

Del Potro is in Nadal's quarter, but with the Spaniard struggling and only the likes of Tommy Robredo, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Tomas Berdych and David Ferrer as opponents in that section I expect another strong showing from the man from Tandil.

Sam Querrey has been performing very consistently of late and although he lacks the class to win an event like this at the moment, I wouldn't be surprised if he emerged as Del Potro's main challenger in that quarter at a massive [230.0].

The final quarter contains Roddick ([11.0]) and Djokovic ([11.5]), along with Fernando Verdasco ([120.0]), Marin Cilic ([250.0]) and John Isner ([500.0]) and this is a tough section to call.

Roddick is in the form of his life at the moment and was unlucky to be beaten by Del Potro in Washington, while Djokovic has spent his time since Wimbledon on holiday with his girlfriend and family, so he will be fresh, if not match fit.

Verdasco has been struggling with a niggling calf injury of late and Cilic was dumped out of Washington in the first round by Devvarman, so neither of these are on my short list this week.

Isner, despite his cumbersome movement, played really well in Washington, beating Tsonga and Berdych before losing out in three tight sets to Roddick and he looks set to cause some problems to higher ranked players again this week.

Advice: Back Del Potro at [13.0]. Back Kiefer to beat Wawrinka in the first round at [2.74]. Back Dancevic to beat Simon at [2.32].

Best outsiders: Isner at [500.0], Frank Dancevic at [750.0], Sam Querrey at [230.0], Kiefer at [750].

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