All the big dogs take to the court on both the men’s and women’s sides in Cincinnati, which sees defending champ Roger Federer return to the court after skipping Montreal last week.

On the women’s side Serena Williams will try and rebound from her semifinal loss in Toronto as the defending Cincy champion amidst a draw featuring 16 of the Top 17 players on the WTA rankings.

WESTERN & SOUTHERN OPEN
Cincinnati, Ohio, …

While a whole lot of nothing was happening in Montreal today, things got pretty good in women’s Canadian Open in Toronto.

After a mostly forgettable first semifinal battle between French Open finalists was won by Simona Halep over Sara Errani 6-4, 6-4. There didn’t seem to be hope of any drama in the night match either between Serena Williams and 18-year-old upstart Belinda Bencic.

I watched a little of Belinda play …

Here we go again, for the fifth time this year good buddies and longtime rivals Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray meet, and it will probably go according to trend, that is with the Serb winning, this time the setting is the Canadian Open Montreal final.

Earlier today, each former champion got there rather easily and efficiently unlike the previous round.

Djokovic ran his record to 10-0 (24-0 in sets) against the hapless …

Unseeded Swiss Belinda Bencic continued her breakthrough tournament on Friday at the Rogers Cup in Toronto, upsetting No. 5 seed Ana Ivanovic 6-4, 6-2 to set up a semifinal meeting with world No. 1 Serena Williams.

At 4-4 in the first set the Swiss ripped off six straight games to take control of the match.

“I’m in the semifinals — I cannot believe it,” said Bencic, who earlier in the week toppled …

Yeah, yeah. I know Nick Kyrgios is a terrible guy. He’s the most hated player in the sport right now. He’s toxic. He’s a horse’s ass. He’s all those things, and you’d be right to say all those things and more.

What he did the other night during his match against Stan Wawrinka, telling the crowd and TV audience that Thanasi Kokkinakis was banging Stan’s alleged girlfriend, Donna Vekic, was …

A trio of former champions all advanced to the Friday quarterfinals. World No. 1 Novak Djokovic breezed past the rising American Jack Sock 6-2, 6-1.

“I never played him before so it took me some time to really figure out what his patterns were of the serves, his game in general,” Djokovic said of Sock. “I did watch him many times before, but it’s different when you’re standing on the court …

The ATP hit Nick Kyrgios with a $10,000 fine and left the door open for even more action after the Australian’s insulting remarks yesterday to Stan Wawrinka and his alleged girlfriend Donna Vekic last night in Montreal.

In a statement, the ATP said, “Nick Kyrgios has been fined the maximum on site amount of $10,000 for an insulting comment he made to Stan Wawrinka during their second round match at …

Following a 75, 75 loss yesterday to Belinda Bencic in Toronto, former No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki levied an attack on the WTA for making her play when she’s not ready to be at her best.

“I think the WTA is all about, you know, they’re like we want the players healthy, we want them to play at their best level at every tournament and we want to make it tough for …

Andy Murray will have to play two today in Montreal, but what’s the bigger match. First, the 2-time Canadian singles winner will meet big-serving Lefty Gilles Muller in the third round.

Then, he’ll team with Leander Paes in the doubles against his brother Jamie and his partner John Peers.

“It’s a bit awkward,” Murray said yesterday after beating Tommy Robredo. “I don’t know how the Williams sisters have done that and played …

Rafael Nadal began his summer swing yesterday in Montreal beating Sergiy Stakhovsky 7-6, 6-3. Nadal, who’s won the Canadian Open three times, was asked about his chances ahead at the US Open, which he missed last year but won twice in 2010 and 2013.

“I don’t know if I have a chance at the US Open,” Nadal said. “The only thing that I know is that all the ups and downs …

World No. 4 Kei Nishikori said yesterday that despite swiftly rising up the ranks, he doesn’t feel any extra pressure from his home country of Japan where he’s such a popular star.

“I’m very comfortable,” said Nishikori after an opening win over Pablo Andujar. “I don’t feel much pressure from Japan or anything. I just try to focus what I can do.

“It’s very honor to be No. 1 player right …

After creating a firestorm of controversy last night with a rude remark during his match with Stan Wawrinka in Montreal, Nick Kyrgios went on Facebook this afternoon to issue an apology.

“I would like to take this opportunity to apologise for the comments I made during the match last night vs Stan Wawrinka,” Kyrgios wrote. “My comments were made in the heat of the moment and were unacceptable on …

The story of the day in tennis isn’t the great matches featured in Canada or Serena Williams’s assault on history, instead, it’s the continued incredible antics of Nick Kyrgios. Last night, the outspoken Aussie did it again, creating a firestorm of controversy and disgust across the internet for the words he said during his match against Stan Wawrinka in Montreal.

Minutes after losing the first set, during the first game Kyrgios …

More than half the men’s seeds in play, including four of the Top 10, were shocked out of the ATP Rogers Cup in Montreal on a chaotic Wednesday.

No. 3 Stan Wawrinka, No. 5 Tomas Berdych, No. 6 Marin Cilic, No. 9 Gilles Simon, No. 14 Grigor Dimitrov and No. 15 Gael Monfils were all shown the exit, with unseeded Americans and Aussies doing the majority of the upset damage.

American qualifier …

Serena Williams did it again. Like we saw at the French Open, Serena lost the first set to Flavia Pennetta, got down a break in the second before roaring back to win 11 of the last 12 games to take the match 2-6, 6-3, 6-0.

“I just told myself to drop it, like drop the racquet low and get ready to do everything I could to get into the game and …