Big Day for Raonic, Bouchard, and Pospisil in Cincinnati

Canada’s three brightest tennis stars are all in action today at the Western & Southern open. Al Dannity breaks down their matches.

Vasek Pospisil isn’t wasting his rise up the rankings. Having vaulted from 71st to 40th on Monday, Pospisil took the first set against Gilles Simon before the Frenchman retired. Next up is Belgian qualifier David Goffin. The 22 year-old had a stunning 2012, fuelled by a run to the fourth round in the French Open and capped off with two crucial victories to secure a place in the Davis Cup World Group for Belgium. This year hasn’t been as kind and prior to this week Goffin hadn’t made it past the first round of a grand slam or Masters Series event since his run to the third round in Miami back in March. This is the type of match Pospisil needs to win if he is to build on last week’s success. I like the Canadian at -161.

The second of Canada’s big three on court faces the toughest challenge of the lot. Eugenie Bouchard’s reward for beating Monica Puig 6-3 6-4 is a clash with Serena Williams. The world number 1 swept all comers aside en route to a dominating win in Toronto last week. Williams hasn’t dropped a set since her stunning loss to Sabine Lisicki in Wimbledon. Winning Cincinnati isn’t the be all and end all for Williams but it plays a role for her in the grand plan. The US Open is only a couple of weeks away and riding a streak into it would give her a ton of momentum. I like Serena Williams to win today in straight sets at -714.

Having won his rebound match after losing to Rafael Nadal on Sunday, Milos Raonic can look ahead to today’s battle with Janko Tipsarevic. It’s a surprise to see Tipsy in this round as I expected him to fall to Sam Querrey but the Serb pulled through in three sets. Raonic was pushed to three sets by Jack Sock yesterday but the win was more important than the manner of victory. Now he has a shot at making the last 16 and securing a winnable match against either Richard Gasquet or John Isner. This is a strange place for Raonic. The only match he truly needed to win this week was Tuesday’s. Now he can treat every opponent from here as an opportunity for progress. Tipsy may be one of the best dressed players on tour but I don’t like him today. I like Raonic at -169.