Well, after completing Indianapolis, Andy heads North to Canada to defend his title in Toronto! There is a great draw for this, the first TMS of the Summer Hardcourt Season, which includes:

Roger Federer, Guillermo Coria, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Rafael Nadal, Gustavo Kuerten and fellow Americans Robby Ginepri, Mardy Fish and Taylor Dent.

 

Heres a quick glance back to last years finals:

 

Andy Roddick bt David Nalbandian 61 63

 

Max Mirnyi/Mahesh Bhupathi bt Todd Woodbrigde/Jonas Bjorkman 63 76(3)

 

2004 Points and PrizeMoney breakdown:

 

W     100    $420,800

F       70     $210,400

SF     45     $105,150

QF    25     $54,700

R16  15      $28,400

R32   7       $15,800

R64   1       $7,940

 

The Draw~

 

Today the draw was released, and as expected, Roger Federer is the 1st seed with Andy the second seed. Andy will play a qualifier in the first round with Federer taking on Hicham Arazi of Morocco. In third seed, Guillermo Coria takes on Luis Horna of Peru and Carlos Moya taking on Fernando Verdasco in an all Spanish Battle.

 

Andy will avoid the likes of Federer, Hewitt, Ferrero, Coria and Nalbandian as they are all in the opposite half of the draw from him. However, in his half there are the likes of Agassi, Nalbandian, Guga and Feliciano Lopez. This may prove tough however I'm sure Andy could battle through.

 

Potentially, Andy could play Nicolas Escude or Feliciano Lopez in the second round. I think that the other encounters in the draw are quite close to call but I do think that Tim Henman could be a nemisis to Andy as he is also in this half of the draw. There are some very interesting matches in this half however, that you might not expect in the first round of a Tennis Masters Series. Tommy Haas will play Andre Agassi for the second time in two weeks and Marat Safin will take on the inform German Nicolas Kiefer.

 

Predictions?

 

I do think Andy could pull through this as his half of the draw is plagued with clay court specialists. {Moya, Gaudio, Lopez, Guga}. Last year he beat Federer for the first time{Andy hasnt beaten him since!!}. This time however he can only play Roger in the final. I hope this happened as I would love to see a rematch of the Wimbledon final as it is only over 3 sets rather than 5.

 

 

Final~ Roger Federer v Andy Roddick { I wont predict a score!}

 

 

Hope you all enjoy the tournament as the draw makes interseting reading. Please take a look at the draw and visit Tennis Rulz for all the latest news, draws etc from the tourney! Also the offical webapage is @ http://canada.masters-series.com/1007

 

 

Good Luck Andy!