The Frenglish Digest: Canadians Volley Out Of Rogers Cup, Denis Coderre Jackhammers His Point Home
The Frenglish Digest. Photo Diamond Yao.
Tennis fans, all sympathies go to you this week. Canada has had a decidedly disastrous run in this year’s singles edition of the Roger’s Cup. Eugénie Bouchard, who, a little more than a year ago, stunned the world by reaching finals in the Wimbledon tournament, got ousted in a first round loss last Tuesday against eventual winner Belinda Bencic 6-0, 5-7, 6-2. The Westmount native has been trapped in a downward spiral ever since her Wimbledon skyrocket: with a record of eight first match losses in her last ten WTA events, the once World No. 5 fell to No. 25. Things were not looking up on the men’s side either. Milos Raonic, freshly returning to the game after a hiatus due to a pinched foot nerve, failed to make a comeback when qualifier Ivo Karlovic beat him 7-6 (1), 7-6 (1) in the first round in a truly nail-biting fashion. On Wednesday, all of Canada’s remaining hopes in the singles tournaments rested on Vasek Pospisil’s lean shoulders. The tables seemed to be turning in the British Columbia native’s favour when he recoiled from John Isner’s eight aces in the opening set by winning the second set 6-4. Sadly, the American’s relentless big serves proved to be too much: Pospisil got defeated 7-6, 4-6, 6-3. “I don’t know what else I could have done except guess differently,” said Pospisil. “John has such a great serve and it came through on the big points. He got 71 per cent of his first serves and that’s big.”
Things looked a little brighter on the doubles side. Daniel Nestor and his French teammate Édouard Roger-Vasselin made it to the final. However, they lost 7-6 (5), 3-6, 10-6 to the No. 1 ranked team of twin brothers Mike Bryan and Bob Bryan. The 42 year old Canadian sounded like a player nearing the end of his playing career in his after match comments. “I can’t promise I’ll be back here in two years,” he said, adding “We’ll play next week in Cincinnati and at the U.S. Open but I don’t know what will happen after that.”
Denis Coderre’s opposition to Canada Post’s project of community mailboxes took on epic new proportions when he showed up with a jackhammer to one of the hated specimens in l’Anse-à-l’Orme nature park. Forget about angry tweets and news conferences – all of which he already did. In front of dozens of cameras, the Montreal mayor destroyed the concrete slab that served as a base for the would-be mailbox without any authorization from the municipality. He was protesting what he thought was Canada Post’s complete lack of consultation with the city on the matter; an opinion that is shared by Westmount Mayor Peter Trent, Southwest Mayor Benoit Dorais, Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension Mayor Anie Samson and Pierrefonds-Roxboro Mayor Jim Beis. The mayors are taking their fight against the Crown corporation to court and have also asked to be part of a class action lawsuit against the postal company.
