A Look Back at the Rogers Cup
Rogers Cup is held yearly in Canada. It is also called the Canadian Open or the Canadian Maters cup. The Rogers Cup tournament is for both men and women tennis players and comprises of singles and double’s events. For men Rogers Cup is a Master 1000 event and for women it is a Premiere 5 tournament. Played on the hard courts, the event is held annually in the month of august. Men and women events are held in the cities of Toronto and Montreal on a rotational basis. One year Men play in Montreal and women in Toronto, the next year men will play in Toronto and women in Montreal. Top ranked tennis players from all over the world compete against each other for the total prize money of US $ 2000000.
The first ever Rogers Cup men tournament was held in the year 1881. The Toronto Lawn Tennis Club hosted the inaugural edition of Rogers Cup. First ever Rogers Cup tournament for women was held in the year 1892, 11 years after the inaugural men’s tournament was played. Only Wimbledon and US Open are the older tennis events than the Rogers Cup. It is considered to be the most prestigious tennis tournament after all four grand slams. During the years 1970 to 1989, Rogers Cup was a part of the Grand Prix Tennis Tour. From time to time the tournaments name has changed. Earlier tobacco manufacturing companies used to be the main sponsors for Roger Cup but later organizers decided to remove the names of tobacco manufacturers from the list of sponsors.
From the time of its inception till 1967.The tournament was named as Canadian Championship. From 1968 to 1996 it was called the Canadian Open for both men and women events. It was called De Maurier open from 1997 to 2000. From 2001 to 2004 the men’s event was known as Canadian Masters and women’s event was known as Rogers AT&T Cup. After 2005 the tournament was renamed to Rogers Cup and till present day is it known as The Rogers Cup. Isidore F. Hellmuth won the inaugural Rogers cup men’s single event in 1881. He defeated W.H. Young 6-2, 6-2 to list the title.
In 1892, when the first Rogers Cup tournament for women was organized Maude Osborne won the tournament and continued to reign the Rogers Cup for next three years.In Pre-open era, Charles S. Hyman won the prestigious Rogers cup 5 times of which 4 were consecutive from 1886 to 1889. Charles S. Hyman holds the record for most number of appearances in Roger Cup Finals with 6 appearances in the final in pre-open era.
In Open Era, Ivan Lendl, holds the record for most number of Rogers Cup titles. He has won the men’s singles title 6 times and has been in the finals for a record 9 times. Of his 6 single titles Ivan Lendl won the title three years continuously in a row from the year 1987 to 1989.