Jo-Wilfried Tsonga begins his Rogers Cup campaign against Fabio Fognini tonight.
Tsonga took an extended break after his Wimbledon heroics, stunning six-time champ Roger Federer to reach the semi-finals for the first time in his career. The popular Frenchman will be a cert to get back into the top ten if he can maintain the form he showed during the grass-court swing, also making the final at Queens.
However with Tsonga, the question as ever is whether he can stay fully fit. He has the game to compete on this surface, two years ago he defeated Federer in Montreal on the way to the semis but last year he was injured through the summer hard-court swing.
He could be poised for another fascinating third round duel with the Swiss this week but first he has to take care of Italy's Fognini, a man most at home on the clay-courts of Europe.
Fognini took full advantage of July's string of small clay events, climbing up to 34 in the rankings but he rarely competes away from his favoured surface and for good reason. The Italian knows where he's going to make his living and it's not on hard courts especially at this level. He has not won a match on hard this year and it's unlikely that pattern will change today.
