Rogers Cup Wrap-Up and Cincinnati Preview

Well, that was a weird final day. Both of the matches which took place today were delayed and interrupted by some problems with rain. In Toronto, during the men's final, the rain delay just kept Federer from really getting into the match. It was a tight affair, but Murray won 7-5, 7-5. Unfortunately, because of the odd conditions in which the match was played, it's tough to tell too much from Murray's victory. He played great, but he got a few breaks that ended up deciding the match. Good win for the Scot, but good for Federer to make it back to number two in the world.

In Cincinnati, the women's final was just as odd. Kim Clijsters was down a set and a break, and was serving to stay in the tournament when a rain delay came along, and she went ahead to break Sharapova while she was serving for the match, then won the second set in a tiebreak. Sharapova was troubled by some kind of injury in the third, but credit Kim for playing through a tough situation. And Maria was magnanimous in defeat - I'm glad to see her back near the top level of the game, because she's such a great personality in addition to being such a great competitor.

The second big men's Masters event takes place next week in Cincinnati, now that the women are off to Canada. I'll take a look at the draw there - this pair of Masters Series tournaments is always a great fortnight during the Summer, something of a U.S. Open preview. Murray just helped his odds in Flushing Meadows this year, but Federer showed he can still play some great tennis to make it to that stage.

Nadal is still the top seed, of course, and one of the eight players to get a bye in the first round. His section of the draw has some tricky players - in fact, his first match could be against Feliciano Lopez, who beat Nadal in Queens. Lopez has to get past Taylor Dent first, but Dent has not been having a great year. After that, Nadal will probably get either Almagro or Wawrinka, who are actually playing each other in the first round. That's going to be a good match, and the winner will get either Llodra or Benneteau - but I'd bet against either Frenchman, no matter who they get. In the quarters, Nadal could have face Cilic, but the Croat was already upset in the first round by Marcos Baghdatis. As a result, it's likely that the Spaniard will get Berdych instead. That should be a fun one.

Even though Federer moved up to number two again this week, the seedings were already determined for this week's tournament, which means that Federer is still the third seed, and could face Nadal in the semifinals. Since Federer is the defending champ here, that's a tough draw - and Federer could slip back to third in the world before the U.S. Open seeds are determined. Lots on the line here. Fed's quarter also has two American wildcards - Robbie Ginepri and James Blake, who could get Fed in the second round. It's tough to see the American pulling off that upset, but he's beaten Roger before. After that, Fed could face Monfils or Kohlschreiber, or his near-conqueror Alejandro Falla. In the quarters, Davydenko is Fed's seeded opponent, but since the Russian has not been playing his best, I see either Querrey or Ferrer making it there. This is actually a good chance for Sam, who has gotten a pretty good draw. He needs a good result at a big tournament like this.

The third quarter is Murray's, but there are a lot of dangerous floaters there. His seeded quarterfinal opponent is Verdasco, but he could have to get by Melzer, Youzhny, Gulbis, Chardy, Gasquet, Fish, or Simon instead. This quarter has the most firecracker opening rounds - Fish against Simon, Gasquet against Youzhny, and Gulbis against U.S. wildcard Donald Young. Lots of fun, streaky players here, so any number of them have the chance to get on a run through to the semifinals.

The final quarter has Novak Djokovic, Robin Soderling, and recently mono-suffering Andy Roddick, who has dropped to the ninth seed, so he has to open in the first round against Sergiy Stakhovsky. Lleyton Hewitt opens against Yen-Hsun Lu for the chance to face Soderling, while David Nalbandian gets Ivan Ljubicic. And Djokovic's first opponent will be either Radek Stepanek or Viktor Troicki. And John Isner is in this section, too. These bottom two quarters are pretty much loaded, honestly. And it's tough to know who's going to get through. There are plenty of great match-ups, though. I'm excited for another week of Masters Series tennis.