$3 million in prize money at stake in upcoming Rogers Cup

Are you a men’s tennis fan? Don’t forget to reserve your seats for the 2010 Rogers Cup, presented by National Bank, at the Rexall Centre at York Aug. 7 to 15. YFile readers get a special discount, outlined below.

This year will see several former Roger’s Cup winners back on the court, including Rafael Nadal, ranked No. 1 in the world after winning this year’s Wimbledon championship, as well as Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Andy Roddick. They will compete for a total of US$3 million in prize money.

The top 10 players included in this year’s entry list are:

Player Name

Nation

Rank

Rafael Nadal

Spain

1

Novak Djokovic

Serbia

2

Roger Federer

Switzerland

3

Andy Murray

Great Britian

4

Robin Soderling

Sweden

5

Nikolay Davydenko

Russia

6

Juan Martin Del Potro

Argentina

7

Tomas Berdych

Czech Republic

8

Andy Roddick

United States

9

Fernando Verdasco

Spain

10

Brief biographies of the top five entrants

Rafael Nadal (right) has won eight Grand Slam singles titles, as well as the 2008 Olympic gold medal in singles. He has played a record 18 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments. In 2008, Nadal was ranked No. 2 in the world behind Roger Federer for 160 consecutive weeks before earning the top spot, which he held from August 2008 to July 2009. It was only this June that he regained the No. 1 world ranking after winning his fifth French Open title.

Novak Djokovic (left) has won 17 singles titles and led the ATP World Tour this year in matches played (97), matches won (78) and hard court matches won (53), all personal bests. He reached the quarter-finals or better in 19 of 22 tournaments and reached four finals in his last seven tournaments going back to mid-August. During that stretch he won 29 of 33 matches with his only losses to Federer (twice), Nikolay Davydenko and Robin Soderling.

Roger Federer (right) held the No. 1 world ranking for a record 237 consecutive weeks and has won a record 16 Grand Slam singles titles. He captured the career Grand Slam, one of only six male players to do so, and one of only two to achieve that on three different surfaces – clay, grass and hard courts. He also holds the record of reaching the semifinals or better for 23 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments, from 2004 until 2010.

Andy Murray (left) has taken home 14 career ATP titles. He made the biggest jump of any player in the top 100 from one year to the next, climbing 449 ranking spots in 2005 to No. 65. By 2006, Murray finished in the top 20 after capturing his first ATP title. He finished in the top 14 the following year and in 2008 captured five more ATP titles to reach his first Grand Slam final. He went one better in 2009 by winning six titles. He will defend his Rogers Cup title this year at the Rexall Centre.

Robin Soderling (right) qualified for his first Grand Slam at the US Open in 2002, then jumped over 100 places in 2003 to reach his first ATP final in Stockholm. He won his first ATP title in Lyon in 2004, then went on to claim the title in Milan the following year. By 2006, he finished as the No. 1 player in Sweden for the first time and in 2008 he won his second career ATP title. Earlier this year, Soderling won his fifth ATP title in Rotterdam.

Special discount available to the York University community

YFile readers are invited to join the action with savings of 25 per cent off all Level 100 seats (platinum, gold, silver and bronze) and 50 per cent off all Level 300 seats. Friends and family of YFile readers are also eligible for the discount. This particular offer is only available through phone orders, not through online orders.

To order, call Tennis Canada at 1-877-283-6647 ext. 4306 and use your group access code (1078-11984166). For more information, click here or visit the Rogers Cup Web site.