Top Ranked Players to participate in Rogers Cup 2008 Tennis Tournament

Rogers Cup 2008 will begin on 23^rd July 2008 and will continue till 3^rd August. Some of the top ranked players of women’s tennis are going to take part in the tournament, set to be held at the Uniprix Stadium, Montreal in Canada. In fact, seven out of top ten players of WTA ranking are to participate in the tournament.

Moreover, top three players of WTA ranking are going to appear in the same tournament for the first time since Wimbledon 2008. So, naturally Rogers Cup has already had some attraction to lure the tennis fans around the world. This is a Tire I tournament on WTA tour and offers US$1 340 000 as prize money. So, Rogers Cup has enough ground to attract the top ranked tennis players.

Tennis fans will get to see top ranked Ana Ivanovic, world no. 2 Jelena Jankovic and world no. 3 Maria Sharapova all together in this tournament for the first time after Wimbledon 2008, perhaps for the last time before Beijing Olympics Games, set to begin from the next month.

Besides the top three, fifth ranked Elena Dementieva, seventh ranked Venus Williams, eighth ranked Anna Chakvetadze and ninth ranked Dinara Safina are expected to participate in Rogers Cup 2008. Justine Henin will not be able to defend her Rogers Cup title this year as the former world no. 1 declared her retirement from professional tennis before French Open 2008.

Maria Sharapova started the season winning Australian Open 2008 title, but failed to star in French Open 2008 and Wimbledon 2008, on both occasions failed to reach the quarter final. Top ranked Ana Ivanovic won her first grand slam title this year in French Open 2008, before failing completely in Wimbledon 2008. However, Ivanovic’s consistency is pretty much satisfactory so far this year. Second ranked Jelena Jankovic could not win any grand slam title yet, but she is also very consistent on the court. The Serbian reached the semi final of Australian Open and French Open this year, while in Wimbledon she was eliminated at the fourth round. However, Jankovic has been more impressive on WTA tour tournaments, wining the title of Tier I tournament on Rome and reaching the final of another Tier I tournament in Miami this year. In fact, Jelena Jankovic was the runner up of Rogers Cup 2007.

Fifth ranked Elena Dementieva has made a strong come back so far this year. She reached the semi final of Wimbledon 2008 and won a Tier II tournament in Dubai. With Wimbledon 2008 triumph fresh in mind, Venus Williams is expected to be one of the most favorites in Rogers Cup 2008. Venus Williams, at seventh in WTA ranking, will definitely look to win Rogers Cup 2008 in order to uphold her current confidence level ahead of U.S. Open 2008 tournament. Eighth ranked Anna Chakvetadze has not been at her best so far this year, failing to reach the quarter final of any of the three grand slam tournaments. Last time, the Russian won a singles title on WTA tour was in 2005. So, an impressive performance at Rogers Cup 2008 would definitely come as a confidence booster for her. French Open 2008 finalist Dinara Safina has already made something special this year playing her first ever grand slam final. Ninth ranked Russian is now at good from and could bring out some success at Rogers Cup 2008.

Well, there is no doubt, the top ranked players are the hot favorites in Rogers Cup 2008, but do not write off the players outside the top ten, because surprise can come at any stage of any tournament like Chinese Jheng Zie played the semi final of Wimbledon 2008, becoming the first player from China to reach the semi final of a grand slam tournament.

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