A month after winning Wimbledon, Novak Djokovic will pick up a racquet once again as the world number one plays as top seed in the Montreal Masters, which begins Monday.
The Serb, who won the first of his three Canadian titles in 2007 in Montreal, also added another in 2011 and a 2012 honour in Toronto to his list of North American success stories.
Since beating Roger Federer — who will not compete next week but will save his energies for the Cincinnati Masters and US Open to follow — Djokovic has seemingly done everything possible to keep his distance from tennis.
He missed the Davis Cup quarter-finals last month to rest and was seen on holiday with the family and on the golf course in and around his base of Monte Carlo.
The 28-year-old had said following Wimbledon that he would be decompressing after a tough first half of the ATP Tour season which yielded four Masters 1000 titles and a third Wimbledon.
“There is no reason not to be satisfied with what I have achieved. In contrary, I’m thrilled and very proud with all the success that I had so far in the career, everything I reached,” Djokovic said after his All England Club success.
“If you would ask me as a 14-year-old back in Serbia trying to find my way, that this is how I’m going to end up at 28, of course I would sign the deal and take it right away.”
– Murray to become a dad –
The Serb and the remainder of the leading seeds benefit from first-round byes in the Quebec City whose tennis stadium was carved from what was originally a baseball pitch.
With world number two Federer missing, Andy Murray takes the second seeding, with the Scot trying to put aside an embarrassing opening-match loss in the Washington Open.
He won back-to-back Canadian trophies in 2009 and 2010 but has not been past the quarter-finals since.
Murray is about to join fellow tennis elites Federer and Djokovic as a new father, with British tabloids reporting wife Kim Sears is due to give birth in February.
Stan Wawrinka, the French Open champion, takes the third seeding, with the Swiss now healed from a shoulder injury which bothered him at Wimbledon and forced him from an appearance on home clay in Gstaad.
Japan’s Kei Nishikori, seeded fourth, is in a similar situation after weeks of leg muscle problems which seem to be improving.
Newly married Czech Tomas Berdych is seeded fifth, ahead of US Open winner Marin Cilic.
Rafael Nadal will be on seventh as the Spaniard takes his first tentative steps onto the hard courts which have been so damaging to his body. The Spaniard built up a small store of confidence by winning the Hamburg clay title this month, but that will likely count for little on the gruelling cement.
Canadian Milos Raonic, also returning from injury after foot surgery in May, is seeded eighth and will carry local weight after losing the 2013 final to Nadal and going out to Spain’s Feliciano Lopez last year in the quarters.
French players take four seeding spots, with Gilles Simon on ninth, 2014 holder Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on tenth and Richard Gasquet seeded 11th. Gael Monfils is seeded 15th.
Spain’s David Ferrer withdrew due to a long-running elbow injury which has kept him off court since the week prior to Wimbledon. (AFP)
