Plenty of people have come out and criticised the new format being used by the Canadian and Cincinnati Masters with the extended schedule causing some problems.
While we have yet to have a conclusion to the two tournaments being run north of the border, the Cincinnati Masters First Round will begin on Thursday, which is the same day the Canadian Finals have been scheduled to be played.
Traditionalists will be baffled by a Thursday Final for the tournaments in Canada, but they will be pretty unhappy that the Cincinnati Masters is set to be concluded on a Monday, which is less than a week before the US Open begins.
The Tours are likely going to make some adjustments with the events, but the back to back nature of the two Masters ahead of the final Grand Slam means needing more space in the calendar. At least those events earlier in the season at Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid and Rome are all in a part of the schedule where they can begin on Thursday and have the traditional Sunday finish, but the Canadian Masters is played right after a big event in Washington and there has already been some overlap with that tournament without the pre-weekend start.
Fans are not that happy, but players are also aggrieved with the scheduling and so it has to be assumed something will be done to appease everybody, including the Masters events that want to sell extra sessions.
The Grand Slams have done the same with the First Round now beginning on a Sunday at all but Wimbledon, while the Night Session approach of the other three Slams also means they can make that extra revenue. Maybe in the years ahead Wimbledon will be following suit, especially if they do finally begin work on the ground extension that was given approval by the courts in the UK, and that will be another blow to what traditionalists have become used to seeing on the Tour.
It has been a solid week for the Tennis Picks at the Canadian Masters, but there are still six matches to be played before the Tour can all move onto Cincinnati.
There are three selections from the Semi Finals that have all been scheduled for Wednesday and those can be read below.
Alexander Zverev - 2.5 games v Karen Khachanov: In a tournament that was missing the likes of Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic, the field will have arrived in Toronto with the belief that a deep run could be possible. Those three players will go into most tournaments as the favourites to win the title so the absence is a big boost to others, although that may have increased the pressure on the Seeded players involved.
That may have been the case for someone like Alexander Zverev who had such a disappointing Wimbledon, but who has always been able to make a big impact at the US Open.
He came close to winning the French Open last year, but Alexander Zverev's biggest miss feels like the US Open in 2020 when leading 2-0 in sets and also serving for the title in the Fifth Set. Playing on the hard courts have been a comfortable experience for the top Seed and his numbers over the last couple of years means he has to head to New York City as a genuine contender.
The performances here in Toronto have been very strong and dumping out the defending Champion after dropping the first set will have given Alexander Zverev confidence. It is the second time he has won a match in Toronto having lost a first set tie-breaker, but Zverev looks a player performing with a lot more belief than even a month ago and that has shown up in the strong finishes to those matches.
Karen Khachanov is the Semi Final opponent and the World Number 16 deserves plenty of respect as a hard court player, even if 2025 had been disappointing prior to his run here. He had been just 5-7 in hard court matches before the four wins at this Masters event, but Karen Khachanov had won 65% of his hard court matches in the previous two seasons and is someone who loves playing on the surface.
With a big serve, Khachanov is able to build plenty of pressure on the hard courts, and an aggressive style means he will look to get on the front foot on the return.
His numbers have been very good in Toronto with 71% of his service points being won and Karen Khachanov will know he needs to serve well to try and keep a lid on Alexander Zverev.
It is the lower Ranked player who has found a bit more joy out of the returning numbers, but Karen Khachanov has seen those declining in each of the four wins produced in the tournament run. He was tested by Alex Michelsen in the Quarter Final win and now arguably faces the toughest serve he will have seen in this event.
Alexander Zverev does have the upper hand in the head to head having beaten Karen Khachanov in five of seven meetings on the Tour.
That includes two hard court wins in North America in 2024 in matches where Zverev had a significant edge as far as the serving numbers go as he comfortably dismissed Karen Khachanov both times. Add in the fact that the latter has tended to struggle when facing higher Ranked opponents on the surface, despite the win over Casper Ruud earlier in the tournament, and you have to believe Alexander Zverev can get the better of the World Number 16 in two tight, competitive sets.
Elena Rybakina - 3.5 games v Victoria Mboko: It has been a really strong season for Victoria Mboko as she continues her development as a professional tennis player with a huge amount of expectation on her shoulders. The 18 year old has won a lot of matches and reached a career high World Ranking of Number 85 in the lead up to a big event in her home country, but even the biggest advocate of Mboko could not have been prepared for the tournament she has put together.
An upset of Coco Gauff will have made headlines, but Victoria Mboko has refused to allow that victory to overwhelm her and she has won two more matches to make it through to the Semi Final in Montreal.
She has already climbed into the top 50 of the provisional World Rankings and now Victoria Mboko takes aim at reaching her biggest Final in her young career.
That would mean overturning a result from Washington when she was beaten by Elena Rybakina and this looks a big challenge considering how well the former Wimbledon Champion is playing right now.
As mentioned previously this week, Elena Rybakina has been struggling on the Tour as off-court issues have regularly been making the headlines instead of her tennis. However, she has looked much more comfortable back on the hard courts over the last month and Elena Rybakina has been in very strong form here in Montreal, while also perhaps benefiting from the fact that Victoria Mboko will have made the majority of the headlines.
Both players will feel they can dominate behind a big first serve, while it is the younger player who has perhaps impressed most with her return game.
In saying that, it was Elena Rybakina who was the stronger of the two players in Washington and she was able to make many more inroads into the Victoria Mboko serve compared with the other way around.
This week the home support will make it that much tougher for Elena Rybakina, but she has a very strong game for the hard courts and the expectation is that she can frank the form with another win over the youngster. In that match in Washington, it was Elena Rybakina who managed to protect the second serve much more effectively compared with Mboko and that may be the case again in this Semi Final with the former World Number 3 also having the advantages of being much more experienced at the latter stages of these big tournaments.
Victoria Mboko will have learned plenty out of that defeat in the previous tournament, and she is playing with a lot of confidence. She will have her moments, but the feeling is that Elena Rybakina may have a few more as she looks to put a big tournament in the books ahead of the US Open.
Naomi Osaka - 1.5 games v Clara Tauson: Both of these players earned dominant Quarter Final wins on Tuesday and so there will be no excuses for Naomi Osaka and Clara Tauson when they have to play again on Wednesday.
The performances throughout the runs in Montreal have been very impressive, although you have to perhaps say the wins that Clara Tauson has produced have been superior to the ones that Naomi Osaka has on the board.
Beating two of the three Grand Slam Champions of 2025 will give Tauson so much confidence and she will feel she is serving well enough in these conditions to try and shorten the points against a dangerous player standing on the other side of the net.
Naomi Osaka has some very strong wins on the record, but she has not faced the likes of Madison Keys or Iga Swiatek and that has to be a potential factor. Crushing Elina Svitolina in the manner she did on Tuesday would have gotten the attention and Naomi Osaka is set to be Seeded at the US Open, which is important to allow her to work her way into that Grand Slam.
Much like her opponent, Naomi Osaka has been using the serve to contain the threats posed from the other side of the net and this has the makings of a close match.
Earlier this year, it was Clara Tauson who will hold the win over Naomi Osaka in the Auckland Final, but the latter withdrew from that match after winning the first set. The numbers really were heavily skewed in favour of Osaka in that match and so she will certainly enter the court with a lot of belief that her game is going to match up well with Clara Tauson's.
The expectation is that both players are going to have plenty of success behind the serve, but Naomi Osaka looks to be playing with a lot of confidence. Her numbers at the event look similar to Clara Tauson's, but Osaka may not make the errors that ended up costing Madison Keys in the Quarter Final defeat to the Dane.
The first set will be important, and Naomi Osaka could be tough to peg back if she is able to get in front.
Clara Tauson is going to be playing at a career high World Ranking from next week and has to be respected, but a big hitting match may end up just slipping away from her at the end.
MY PICKS: Alexander Zverev - 2.5 Games @ 1.72 Bet365 (1 Unit)
Elena Rybakina - 3.5 Games @ 1.85 Bet Victor (1 Unit)
Naomi Osaka - 1.5 Games @ 1.66 Sky Bet (1 Unit)
Weekly Update: 13-4, + 6.99 Units (17 Units Staked, + 41.12% Yield)
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