First Serve: Canadians on the pro tennis tours this week

This part of the summer tennis schedule is practically an overload of tennis for the top names, the ones who go deep into tournaments.

Imagine being Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Simona Halep or Belinda Bencic (all finalists at the Rogers Cup Sunday) and having to turn right around and head to an equally-major event after perhaps one day off.

For the top Canadians – Milos Raonic, Vasek Pospisil and Genie Bouchard – it's not as much of an issue, because all were eliminated fairly on in Montreal and Toronto last week. But still, they're right back at it.

Pospisil had to qualify at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati (which unites the men and the women for the week), because his ranking at the time of the tournament deadline had dropped enough to keep him out of the main draw. And he did, firing 25 aces to get past Korean teenager Hyeon Chung in the final round.

On Monday, he defeated another qualifier, Denis Kudla, 6-4, 6-3 in the first round of the main draw, surviving a fit of the giggles along the way.

Pospisil plays Tuesday against No. 16 seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, as Raonic and Bouchard both also make their Cincinnati debuts.

Raonic, seeded No. 8 in Montreal, had a first-round bye here. Not so in Cincinnati, where he is No. 9 and thus has to play a first-round match.

Veteran Spanish lefthander Feliciano Lopez, ranked No. 23, is a fearsome opponent even though he has gotten past the second round only twice since his Cincinnati debut in 2003 – surprising, given how the fast courts should suit his game.

Bouchard, facing a qualifier in the first round, had to wait to find out who her first-round opponent would be. She will play Ukraine's Kateryna Bondarenko, a former top 30 player who is on the comeback trail after a maternity break.

All of those matches take place Tuesday. Pospisil and American partner Jack Sock also reunite in doubles, where they face a stiff challenge Tuesday against the pickup team of doubles specialist Leander Paes and top singles player Stan Wawrinka. Daniel Nestor and new partner Edouard Roger-Vasselin, who reached the Rogers Cup doubles final Sunday, also are in Cincinnati to build upon that momentum.

Meanwhile, out in Vancouver, the Odlum Brown Van Open boasts the strongest field in its history, having increased the prize money to $100,000 for both the men and the women and changed its slot on the calender to a more advantageous week.

In addition to wild cards like Ernests Gulbis (who had a great week in Montreal) and former top-10 Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia, there are several Canadians in action including Gabriela Dabrowski, Sharon Fichman, Carol Zhao and Philip Bester.

The U.S. Tennis Association controls half of the wild-card allocations for this event, so there aren't as many Canadians in the main singles draws as would otherwise be the case.

Bester defeated 21-year-old Filip Peliwo in a three-set marathon in the first round of qualifying, then lost in the final round to No. 1 qualifying seed Guido Andreozzi of Argentina.

As it happens, Bester squeaked in as a lucky loser. Who will be play in the first round? None other than Andreozzi.

Bookmark this link to keep track of the Canadian results throughout the week.