this season and Edmonton

[jinshuiqian0713]

TORONTO -- Roger Federer walked out of the tunnel for his opening match at the Rogers Cup, and the sight of Canadian flags reminded him of what he was dealing with against hometown boy Peter Polansky. Red-and-white "Go Canada Go" signs filled the crowd at Rexall Centre on a day four Canadian mens players took the court. By the end of the night, they all left the tournament. Vasek Pospisil lost to Richard Gasquet, Frank Dancevic fell to Donald Young, Brayden Schnur was defeated by Andreas Seppi, and Polansky was blown out by Federer. With Eugenie Bouchard losing to American qualifier Shelby Rogers in Montreal, it was a dark day for Canadian tennis that left Milos Raonic as the countrys only hope. On the mens side in Toronto, Pospisils loss was the most surprising. Only two days after losing to Raonic in the Citi Open final, the Vancouver native was hampered by a right leg injury and fell 7-5, 7-5 to Gasquet in a rematch from last week. "I think Im just a little bit tired mentally, maybe," Pospisil said. "Just been on the road a lot of weeks. You need to be a 100 per cent at this level if youre playing against Richard. I wasnt feeling 100 per cent today." Adding injury to insult on a rough day for Canadian tennis, Pospisil was set to have an MRI on an abductor injury, which seized up at 5-all in the first set. It also forced him to withdraw from doubles action, where he was set to team up with regular partner Jack Sock of the United States. Pospisil said he had been bothered by the "strange feeling" in his leg off and on for a few weeks but didnt think it would be a long-term problem that would keep him out of last nexts event in Cincinnati or the U.S. Open. As a home-country fan favourite, the crowd was understandably behind Pospisil as he gutted through the injury. "He has an extra motivation because its being home," Gasquet said. "Its the same when Im playing in France. But yeah he had big expectations on him, especially here in Toronto." The loss drops Pospisil out of the top 40 of the ATP rankings. He had been 27th, just short of his career-best ranking of 25th. "He has no weaknesses," Gasquet said of Pospisil. "He has a very big forehand, very big serve, so its always tough for me to play against these kind of players. ... I know its a difficult opponent for me, but I played a good match." Polansky getting out-classed by Federer was the least shocking result of the day. But after beating 2013 Wimbledon finalist Jerzy Janowicz on Monday night, Polansky was happy to get an opportunity to face the 17-time Grand Slam champion. "Even though I lost 2 and 0, still really enjoyable, had a lot of good points," Polansky said. "Obviously that was my first time playing someone of that level. But, yeah, I thought it was a good match overall." Federer said hes normally not heartless when facing an overmatched opponent but knew he needed to block that out. "You never know when it can shift," said Federer, who needed all of 53 minutes to polish off Polansky. "You feel a little bit and then you end up losing the match." Raonic is the last Canadian standing in singles play at the Rogers Cup, after the four mens losses in Toronto and defeats by Bouchard, Aleksandra Wozniak and Francoise Abanda on the womens side in Montreal. Raonic plays his first Rogers Cup match Wednesday night against Sock, who beat Austrian Jurgen Melzer 6-1, 6-3. Raonic beat Sock, a Nebraska native, in straight sets at Wimbledon and then again last week at the Citi Open in Washington. "Im definitely excited for tomorrow," Sock said of facing Raonic. "The juices will be flowing. He got me in my home country last week, so Im going to try to maybe get some revenge." Plenty of juices were flowing for Canadians in afternoon play in Toronto, but that wasnt enough. On the grandstand, the wheels fell off in the second set for Dancevic in a 5-7, 6-0, 6-3 defeat to American Donald Young. Dancevic said Young did a good job of adapting to his game. "He just started reading my serve in the second and third set," Dancevic said. "I couldnt get any more free points on my serve, my serve percentage dropped down a little bit and he just started playing better and better as the match went on. ... I felt like it was difficult to find answers for him." Similarly, Schnur had no answers for Seppi, losing 6-3, 6-3 in his ATP World Tour debut. "He was just a little bit better at everything, really, than me," the 19-year-old Pickering, Ont., native said. "He kept the balls deeper at the end of the court, pushed me back, made a lot more balls that Im not used to seeing come back, and didnt let me attack so often, thats for sure, took away my weapons." Schnur and Seppi waited out a rain delay of more than two hours before beginning their match on the grandstand court at Rexall Centre. Schnur said that didnt help his fatigue, but he acknowledged it being part of his learning process. "Nerves are always in my system," Schnur said. "It slowly tires you out going in and out, in and out, warming up, having to cool down. But its something that Im learning to get used to." Schnur got used to being the fan favourite during his qualifying matches over the weekend. Fans encouraged him with shouts of, "Come on, Brayden," against Seppi, but the home-country advantage wasnt enough against the Italian veteran. "Obviously at important moments, he missed a few important shots," said Seppi, who advances to face Ivan Dodig, who upset 10th-seeded John Isner. "I knew (Schnur) could serve pretty well, and I think he didnt have so good percentage on the first serve, otherwise it would be for sure tougher. I think he can for sure play pretty well, especially on the hard courts. It was his first match, so I think he handled it really well." Schnur plans to play a futures event in Calgary next week before returning to school at the University of North Carolina. He considered these few days in Toronto a benefit for his career. "Its good to see what I can improve on," Schnur said. "I gained a lot of confidence in my game. I think I played a lot better, even though I lost." In other play, fast-rising star Nick Kyrgios beat Santiago Giraldo, 7-6 (3), 7-5 to set up a match with No. 8 seed Andy Murray, No. 11 seed Ernests Gulbis beat Joao Sousa 6-3, 6-4, No. 16 seed Fabio Fognini beat Mikhail Youzhny 6-4, 6-3, No. 17 seed Tommy Robredo beat Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3, 7-6 (3), Ivo Karlovic beat Bernard Tomic 3-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6(6), Gael Monfils beat Radek Stepanek 6-3, 7-5, Malek Jaziri beat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-4, 7-6 (6), Gilles Simon beat Dominic Thiem 3-6, 6-4, 6-0, Yen-Hsun Lu beat Marcel Granollers 7-6 (6), 7-5 and third-seeded Stan Wawrinka defeated Benoit Paire 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (2). Зарегистрируйтесь, чтобы увидеть ссылку! . -- Ben Bishop had a milestone game against one of the NHLs greatest goalies. Зарегистрируйтесь, чтобы увидеть ссылку! . made a diving catch in left field for the final out in a 1-0 victory over the Miami Marlins in a regular-season finale Sunday. Zimmermann (14-5) allowed only two baserunners, finishing with 10 strikeouts and one walk in the fifth no-hitter in the majors this year. Зарегистрируйтесь, чтобы увидеть ссылку!, will experience this week. A year in which the Canadian curling championship has been pushed forward a week to accommodate the Winter Olympics was deemed the perfect chance to stage the event in Montreal for the first time since 1979. Зарегистрируйтесь, чтобы увидеть ссылку! . Pominville scored in all three of Minnesotas games last week to help the Wild (8-4-3, 19 points) earn four out of a possible six points. His best performance was in a 4-3 win over Montreal on Friday, where he posted a season-high three points (two goals, one assist), including the game-winning goal. Зарегистрируйтесь, чтобы увидеть ссылку! . The person, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the confidential nature of the search, confirmed reports by several media outlets. The interview took place in Southern California on Monday.EDMONTON - Rather than worry about who is chasing them in the Eastern Conference standings, the New York Rangers are more concerned about just taking care of their own business on the ice. The Rangers will try to do just that on Sunday night as they continue a four-game western road trip with a matchup against the Edmonton Oilers. You can watch all the action on TSN beginning at 8pm et/5pm pt. New York hit the road having won five straight, including a big regulation victory over the rival Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday, but were bested 4-3 by the spoiler-happy Calgary Flames. Brian Boyle, Raphael Diaz and Brad Richards scored in a second-period burst for the Rangers, but Henrik Lundqvist stopped just 24-of-28 shots faced. The setback allowed the Flyers to pull within a point of the Rangers for second place in the Metropolitan Division as Philadelphia topped the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday. The Flyers have two games in hand over the Rangers and host the Boston Bruins earlier on Sunday. Rangers like Richards likely wont be scoreboard watching though. "If its not Philly, its probably some other team," Richards said. "Theres a bunch of teams around us. We just want our two points. We do control our own destiny, and we want to do it, but thats the disappointing thing. We arent worried about Philly right now." Edmonton is another team looking to play spoiler and snapped a three-game slide with Fridays 4-3 overtime win against the Anaheim Ducks, with Andrew Ference scoring with 1:09 left on the clock. Edmonton had taken two penalties earlier in the overtime, leading to a brief 5-on-3 for Anaheim, but the Ducks took a whistle and the teams wound up skating 3-on-3.dddddddddddd With a lot of ice to work with, Ference grabbed the puck in the neutral zone and skated down the middle, winding up for a big blast that ticked off the right post and in. "It was that 3-on-3 mode still so just a lot of ice that was just sitting there in the middle," said Ference. "I wasnt about to try anything too fancy so I just kind of old school, stepped up and whacked it." Sam Gagner scored his 100th career goal and rookie defenseman Oscar Klefbom netted his first, while Jordan Eberle also tallied for the Oilers. Ben Scrivens made 48 saves as Edmonton moved to 2-3-0 on a six-game homestand. Forwards Tyler Pitlick and Ryan Jones both suffered knee injuries versus the Ducks, and while Pitlick may not miss any time, Jones is out for the season with a torn PCL. Edmonton forward Nail Yakupov also remains out with an ankle issue. Scrivens is 2-0-0 with a 0.50 GAA in his career versus the Rangers, making 35 saves in a 2-1 victory in New York on Feb. 6. That was the first of two meetings between the clubs this season and Edmonton has won four of the last six in this matchup overall. The Oilers, who have won three of the past four played at home in this series, got goals from Yakupov and Ryan Smyth in the one-goal victory, while Rangers backup netminder Cam Talbot finished with 29 saves. Talbot is expected to get the start tonight. ' ' '