The 2017 Rogers Cup, the Canadian Masters on the ATP Tour, is over. The champion is Alexander Zverev, the German winning his first title at the Canadian Masters and his second Masters Series title overall. Zverev apparently coming of age is the biggest story of the 2017 Rogers Cup. However, the tournament will definitely be remembered for other reasons. Dennis Shapovalov and Rafael Nadal were both central to the tournament's headlines over the last week.
Shapovalov made a big name for himself
The 2017 Rogers Cup will be remembered, especially in Canada, as the tournament where Shapovalov arrived on the ATP tennis scene.
If the 18-year old does go on and have an outstanding career, then that he broke into the top 100 in Montreal will be forever remembered in Canadian tennis. Milos Raonic is the only player that modern Canadian tennis fans have ever seen as a significant force on the ATP singles tour. But Raonic started breaking out on tour at the age of 20, and he did it at the 2011 Australian Open. Shapovalov, in contrast, made a run to the semifinals of the Canadian Masters and that promises to make him well known to sports fans in Canada very quickly.
His tournament will also be remembered for the drama. Shapovalov won his first-round match but only by saving multiple match points. Afterward, he was able to best former US Open champions in Juan Martin del Potro and Rafael Nadal before taking out French veteran Adrian Mannarino.
The match against Nadal went to a third-set tiebreaker and could have gone the Spaniard's way. Shapovalov didn't have enough in the semifinals to best Zverev but the Canadian certainly delivered at a home tournament. He will be ranked in the top 70 come Monday.
Nadal's lost opportunity
The tournament will also be remembered for Nadal's failed attempt at claiming the top ranking on tour.
He has been ranked lower than No. 1 since 2014, and he was close to getting back to the top. Before the Shapovalov upset Nadal appeared to have an excellent chance of making the semifinals, the round of play he needed to reach to get to the top spot. If the Spaniard should not reclaim No. 1, then the 2017 Rogers Cup may be remembered as a turning point in his late career.
But even without that a major subplot in the tournament never panned out as many had expected Nadal to be on top of the rankings on Monday, August 14th.
All the missing big names
Another story with the 2017 Rogers Cup is the players that simply never showed up. The Rogers Cup was missing a lot of usual suspects for the late rounds of Masters Series events. Stan Wawrinka, Marin Cilic, Andy Murray, and Novak Djokovic all missed the tournament, and they will all miss more tournaments in the near future.
But no-shows aside, there were also the players that underachieved in the main draw. Milos Raonic, Canada's top player, went out in his first match. None of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Grigor Dimitrov, Dominic Thiem, Lucas Pouille, nor David Goffin really got into the tournament.
Shapovalov and co-semifinalist Robin Haase were the beneficiaries as unlikely semifinalists. The 2017 Rogers Cup might be the tournament where the ATP started to head in a different direction. After all, only one player of the Big Four was in the semifinals and he, Roger Federer, didn't win the final.
