14th August, 2011
Novak Djokovic will face Mardy Fish in the final of the ATP Rogers Cup in Montreal, after the Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga retired in his match against the world Number 1, while Samantha Stosur will look to fine tune her US Open preparations and register a first tournament win of a disappointing 2011 when she takes on Serena Williams in the final of the Rogers Cup in Toronto today.
The Guardian of London reports that Tsonga had been expected to test Djokovic, after a fine run through to the semi-finals that included a win over Roger Federer, but he pulled out when trailing 6-4, 3-0. A right-arm injury was cited as the problem affecting Tsonga, who had dropped serve in the the second game of the second set.
Djokovic has won 52 of his 53 matches in 2011 and is chasing a ninth title of the year. The 24-year-old Serbian has won on all six of his previous meetings with Fish.
However Fish, the sixth seed, is having the best year of his career, reaching Number 8 in the world rankings. The 29-year-old is the leading United States player, comfortably ahead of Andy Roddick. He beat another Serbian, the unseeded Janko Tipsarevic, 6-3 6-4 to reach his third final in a month. Fish won the Atlanta Tennis Championships title and was runner-up at the Farmers Classic in Los Angeles in July.
According to Herald Sun of Australia, Stosur dispatched Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2 5-7 6-2 to reach Sunday’s final, while Serena easily beat Victoria Azarenka in straight sets 6-3 6-3 to set up a mouth watering final.
The 2010 French Open finalist will go into the clash with some confidence after defeating Serena in the quarter-finals at Roland Garros that year on her charge to the decider.
After a barren summer, Stosur last week dropped out of the top 10 for the first time in 16 months, but win or lose in the Canadian decider, she’ll back there.
More importantly, her confidence appears to be back ahead of the year’s final major at Flushing Meadows starting at the end of the month.
Queenslander Stosur broke Radwanska’s serve three times in the opening set, but Radwanska rallied to take the second set when Stosur double-faulted.
The 10th seeded Australian broke Radwanska to go up 5-2 in the third, then clinched the victory with an ace.
The loss halted a nine-match winning streak for the 22-year-old Radwanska, who earned her fifth WTA title last week in southern California.
After a rough 12 months, Stosur is pleased to be heading back into the world’s top 10.
“I think it’s always for any person playing a professional sport like tennis, that benchmark is the top 10, and then you make your top five, and from there, you never know what’s possible,” Stosur said. “But I was definitely very excited when I broke the top 10 the first time.”