Written by: Michael Emmett

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***Michael Emmett is the Director of Tennis Operations at all Mayfair clubs.  He is a certified Tennis Canada Coach 3 with a Journalism degree from the University of Texas. Michael spent several years working in sports television at TSN and Sportsnet.  Michael is a former National champion who finished his last year of junior tennis ranked #1 in Canada.  Michael has coached several National champions when he worked for the All-Canadian Academy at the National Tennis Centre at York University in the early 90s.  Michael spent 2 years traveling the world playing the ATP tour satellite circuit as a member of the Molson National Team in 1985 and ’86.***

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Top 30 Moments this past week in Montreal and Toronto

1. Vasek Pospisil upset Thomas Berdych in three thrilling sets and sent the centre court stadium into a wild frenzy in Montreal. His first win over a top 10 ATP player in his short career. It can’t get any closer than 7-5 in the final set tie-break. This was the pivotal win in his extraordinary showing in Montreal. His ranking jumped more than 30 spots to #40.
2. Milos Raonic defeated 2009 US Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro, in a controversy filled 2-setter – a win that propelled him to the quarter finals and made an All-Canadian semi-final a strong possibility.
3. Raonic beats Pospisil in a well-played semi-final to become first Canadian since 1958 to reach the Canadian Open final. This was a nail biter that went the distance with Raonic winning the decisive tiebreak 7-4. A fantastic environment for these two young stars at Uniprix Stadium in Montreal. With the win Raonic moved in the top-10 of the world rankings for the first time in his career.
4. Robert Lindstedt & Daniel Nestor upset 15-time grand slam champions – the Bryan Brothers – in a third set super breaker. The Bryan Brothers have won the first 3 Grand Slams in 2013, and they were looking for their 5th Rogers Cup title.
5. The Wild Card team of Dabrowski & Fichman defeated top seeds and 3-time Grand Slam winners Errani & Vinci in their third consecutive super breaker and advanced to Semi Finals. A great win that mostly went unnoticed in the tennis community.
6. Raonic loses final to Nadal in a one-sided thrashing. This is one example of where the score did not do the entire scope of the match and justice. Nadal was unbeatable. The man from Majorca had too much steam on his lethal groundstrokes. Nonetheless, a fantastic result for Raonic and Canadian tennis.
7. Pospisil beat American serving machine John Isner in a marathon 3-setter in a classic first round tilt. This was the first of his third set breaker victories.
8. Raonic hangs on to beat Jeremy Chardy – 7-5 in the third to guarantee 5 Canadians advancing to the second round at the Rogers Cup for the first time ever.
9. Peter Polansky beat Wimbledon quarter-finalist Lukasz Kubot in the final round of qualifying to guarantee 6 Canadians in the field. This was just the beginning of a week Canadian tennis players will never forget.
10. Carol Zao won her two qualifying matches at the Rexall Centre by identical 6-4, 6-4 scores and advanced to the main draw.
11. Eugenie Bouchard defeated Alisa Kleybanova in straight sets to set up a matchup with Petra Kvitova in prime time on Wednesday night.
12. Jesse Levine defeats Xavier Malisse in a blistering baseline dual and sets up a difficult second round encounter with 12-time grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal.
13. Filip Peliwo, a former Junior Grand Slam champion, stunned Jarko Nieminen in hard-fought 3 setter – Denis Istomin was next on the docket.
14. Sharon Fichman won the all-Canadian first round battle over Stephanie Dubois in an exciting 3-setter on the Grand Stand court.
15. Frank Dancevic continues the trend of Canadians winning first round matches with a 3-set win over Yen—Hsun Lu.
16. Milos Raonic defeated Russian Mikhail Youzhny in two convincing sets to advance to the round of 16. His best performance with new coach Ivan Ljubicic at the helm.
17. Milos Raonic defeats giant killer Ernests Gulbis in an electric 3-setter in the quarterfinals to set up an All-Canadian semi-final for the first time in an ATP event since 1990.
18. Pospisil beat Davydenko in 20 minutes as the Russian retired with breathing issues. This was not the quarterfinal the fans hoped to see.
19. Pospisil hammered Stepanek in a routine massacre in the second round 6-2, 6-4. A win that served notice there are 2 Canadians in the draw to pay attention to.
20. Sharon Fichman plays a great match and loses to Jelena Jankovic (6-4, 7-6) – a match that could easily have gone three sets with a break or two along the way.
21. Eugenie Bouchard did not look out of place in losing in the second round to defending champion Petra Kvitova in a slugfest from the baseline. Despite the lopsided score it was a very entertaining match and we all saw the enormous potential in the young Canadian.
22. Dabrowski & Fichman’s miracle dream comes to an abrupt end as they lose to Jankovic & Srebotnik in the semi-final.
23. Nestor & Linstedt lost to Murray & Fleming in the Doubles semi-final in Montreal.
24. Peliwo loses to Istomin in three sets. Istomin – in his next match – took top seed Novak Djokovic to the limit in a prime-time round of 16 confrontation.
25. Frank Dancevic plays his heart out and comes up just short against Polish superstar Jerzy Janowicz (the Wimbledon semi-finalist), 6-4 in the third set. One of the best matches played in the entire tournament.
26. Jesse Levine gets his lunch handed to him in a virtual thrashing against Nadal (6-2, 6-0).
27. Fresh off his giant win in the qualifying – Polansky comes up short against the 9th seed Kei Nishikori (4-6, 6-4, 6-2) – with a win here Tennis Canada would have been celebrating 6 Canadians in the second round.
28. As a wild card into the qualifying, Peter Polansky looked very sharp in an opening round win over Czech player Lukas Lacko. His second round opponent was 67th ranked Lukasz Kubot.
29. Zao runs into a buzz-saw, in Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, losing 6-3, 6-1 in the first round despite a wonderful run through the qualifying.
30. Gabriela Dabrowski wins her opening-qualifying match over former top 75 Player Karolina Pliskova in straight sets.