🖥️📱 Click here for live coverage on TennisChannel.com
Estimated start time: 12:30 p.m. ET, Monday, July 28
👉 Stream all WTA Montreal matches here
👉 Click here for the complete Montreal bracket.
Emma Raducanu vs. Elena-Gabriela Ruse: Match Preview
How real is the Raducanu revival? She’s up 28 ranking spots since the start of the year, from 61 to 33. She made the third round at Wimbledon, and pushed top seed Aryna Sabalenka through two close sets. She recorded three good wins—over Marta Kostyuk, Naomi Osaka and Maria Sakkari—in severe D.C. heat last week. Still, over the past three years, we’ve seen Raducanu periodically reappear and post a promising result or two. The question now is whether the 22-year-old Slam champ can make it a weekly thing.
Judging by the last time she faced Ruse, that may not be easy this week. In their only previous meeting, last year on hard courts in Auckland, Raducanu won 7-5 in the third set. Ruse is a 27-year-old Romanian who’s currently ranked 58th, and has never risen higher than 51st. She’s a fairly tall and rangy baseliner who likes her topspin forehand, and is comfortable rallying with her two-handed backhand—not all that different from Raducanu. She’s coming off an early loss on hard courts in Prague, but she looked good on grass last month, making the final in ’s-Hertogenbosch and nearly beating Madison Keys at Wimbledon.
These two are comparably ranked, and they played a close one in their last match. I’ll say this time it goes Ruse’s way. Winner: Ruse