Click here for our transparent tipping record.
Regular readers will know I’ve never been averse to a stat or two, particularly when it comes to the Big Four.
My regular one when it comes to Masters 1000 tournaments is that the quartet of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray have scooped 60 of the last 66 titles between them.
However, there’s also another which helps ram home just how dominant they have been for so long.
The last time non-Big Four members won back-to-back Masters titles was in 2010 when Ivan Ljubicic and Andy Roddick were champions in Indian Wells and Miami respectively.
With Alex Zverev having won the last such tournament in Rome, there’s a chance that seven-year-old stat could be wiped out in Montreal and that chance has been increased by the absence of both Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray from the Coupe Rogers field due to injury.
Still, the two Big Four members who remain, Federer and Nadal, fill the top two spots in the betting and after the seasons they have had it’s easy to see why.
Both will have their backers but respective prices of 7/4 and 7/2 aren’t for me.
Those backing Federer need to realise he’s never won in Montreal.
This tournament alternates each year between the Quebec City and Toronto and in four visits to the former, Federer has only ever made the final once, losing to Djokovic in 2007. He’s not played here at all since 2011.
This is also his first foray onto the hardcourts since early April and while it’s only three weeks he’s had off this time as opposed to two months, it’s worth noting that the last time he switched surfaces he lost in the first round in Stuttgart to Tommy Haas.