First Serve: Canadians on the pro tennis tours this week

The Canadian women at the top of the pro tennis pile are all gathering at the Aréna Maurice-Richard in Montreal this week, preparing for a challenge on Saturday and Sunday as Canada takes on Romania in a Fed Cup playoff tie that will determine whether the country stays in the prestigious eight-nation World Group I for 2015.

The late confirmation by the team's undisputed boss, Genie Bouchard, that she would play was welcome news indeed; without her, Canada would have had only a ghost of a chance against a Romanian squad that will be without its top player, world No. 3 Simona Halep, but boasts much more depth.

With Bouchard will be Sharon Fichman, doubles specialist Gabriela Dabrowski and 18-year-old Montrealer Françoise Abanda.

Meanwhile, across the pond, Milos Raonic is back in action after a 10-day break, following his good effort at the Masters 1000 tournaments in Indian Wells, Calif. and Miami, Fla.

Raonic will be right at home; he has an apartment in Monte Carlo and makes his official residence there. So he can stroll to work this week at the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters.

It's a tournament that is steeped in history and stunning vistas, a Masters 1000 event that doesn't have quite the same depth of field as some of the others. Kei Nishikori, for whatever reason, doesn't play there. Andy Murray – who at one point pondered playing – is taking a few days off after his wedding blowout in Scotland last weekend and will head to Barcelona, Spain in a few days to do a little clay-court training.

Still, the "big three" of Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are on hand. But the other absences mean that Raonic snagged the No. 4 seed – guaranteeing that if he can have a good run, he wouldn't have to face any of them until the semi-finals.

The other high-seeded players in Raonic's section of the draw are No. 16 Tommy Robredo (a player he took care of easily on the hard courts in the desert) and No. 6 seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic (against whom he is 3-1, all on hard courts)

Raonic has Federer in his half. After a first-round bye, his first opponent will be Joao Sousa of Portugal on Wednesday. He's also playing doubles, but given partner Ernests Gulbis was trounced 6-0, 6-1 in his first-round singles match, he probably doesn't have great expectations in that regard.

Canadian doubles legend Daniel Nestor also is in Monte Carlo, and will be making his debut with his brand-new partner, 41-year-old Leander Paes of India. Nestor and Paes, the No. 6 seeds, also have a first-round bye in the doubles and in the second round, they could face another new team, Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea. Bopanna was the partner Nestor left behind after Miami to team up with Paes, so those sorts of clashes are always ... intriguing. There will be no shortage of motivation.

Vasek Pospisil isn't playing Monte Carlo, where he would have had to go through the qualifying. He is scheduled to start his clay-court season next week in Barcelona, where he will find doubles partner Jack Sock once again. Sock just won the first ATP Tour singles event of his young career on Sunday in Houston, on red clay.

Another Davis Cup team member, Frank Dancevic, is playing a $100,000 clay-court tournament in Sarasota, Fla. this week.

(Bookmark this link to keep up with all the latest Canadian results during the week. And stay with Eh Game for first-to-last-ball coverage of this weekend's Fed Cup tie in Montreal).